Now that’s an MOS.
Thats what BDA and post strike missions are for, more canned sunshine than targets. But I am guessing that the device is salvage fused.
Declan
Although nobody has ridden a nuclear bomb like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove, it has almost happened on two occasions.
May 27, 1957: A B-36J is ferrying a Mk-17 15-megaton H-bomb and approaching Kirtland AFB. A safety procedure required pulling the bomb release locking pin before landing to enable an emergency jettison if needed. As depicted in the movie, climbing around the bomb bay is a dark, confined space. In this case the crewman climbed back there, pulled the pin, then lost his balance and while flailing for something to grab, pulled the emergency bomb release handle. The 42,000 lb Mk-17 departed the plane, taking the bomb bay doors with it. The crewman managed to hang on.
Some of the bomb’s high explosives detonated on impact but the nuclear portion was was not armed, so did not detonate in a nuclear fashion.
March 11, 1958: A B-47E is on a training mission with a Mk-6 30 kiloton bomb, flying over Florence, SC. It is not armed and the nuclear core was not installed. Upon takeoff the normal practice was to remotely engage the bomb release safety pin to prevent an inadvertent drop. However the remote pin engagement produced a warning light, so the the Captain asked the bombardier to crawl back in the bomb bay and find what’s wrong.
Again, like the Kubrick movie, the bomb bay was a dark confined space and the bombardier could not locate the safety pin mechanism. In searching for it he tried to climb on top of the bomb, and feeling for a hand hold, he accidentally grabbed and pulled the emergency release lever. The bomb dropped through the closed bay doors, which is where he was standing. As he felt himself following the bomb into space, he managed to grab something then pull his legs back into the plane.
The released Mk-6 bomb hit an unoccupied child’s playhouse and on impact the high explosives detonated, making a crater 75 feet wide. The blast injured some people on the ground but nobody was killed.
Since then all nuclear weapons have been upgraded to use chemical explosives that will not detonate on impact.
These are documented in the book Atomic Accidents by Jim Mahaffey.
I’d presume the timer itself is probably set on the ground before the bomb is loaded, depending on the planned method of delivery. Presumably they know ahead of time if they’re going to load the bomb onto a B-52 (big and slow), a B-1B (big and fast), or whatever else.
Currently, I do not believe the Navy operates nuclear bombers, but they used to. There were a small variety of twin and triple engined jet bombers used for a while. Way back in the 50s, they had prop-driven twin-engine nuclear bombers as well. When the Navy’s nuke mission became primarily sub-launched missile-based, the nuclear bombers were retired or converted to other missions, to include things like reconnaissance, electronic warfare, or air-refueling.
The lights are much brighter there, you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go DOWNTOWN. 
Thanks–I asked because our current Bomb Dropper, Nuclear mentioned “setting the timer” as part of his (goofy) mission profile. (Weren’t you, Ruguleadar, a Bomb Dropper also? I know there are few about GQ.)
Although this is probably more like “initiating the (predefined) arming sequence”–now that’s something I’d like to know about–the human authorization confirmation routines; but even if we could get the PTB to offer him Charter Membership I doubt LSLGuy would tell us much. (You notice he hasn’t replied to the query…)
On the other other hand, since we’re basing this discussion on procedures and doctrine of Major Kong, what if the attack profile (I just made up “attack profile” because it sounds cool) does include, in some bizarre turn of events, a target of opportunity?
Because it would be a shame to drop such an expensive bomb in the drink.
Think of a guy on the ground who sees the bomb fall, and figures it didn’t go off.
“Thank goodness, a dud!”
…CLICK
Before the mushroom cloud: * Roadrunner turns to look at us, gulps. *
Linky no worky. Try this (and as a bonus, see James Earl Jones’s screen debut!): Dr. Strangelove (7/8) Movie CLIP - Kong Rides the Bomb (1964) HD - YouTube
Correct. Some examples:
I noticed that as well so I checked his profile. Turns out he hasn’t logged on since the 20th of May and hasn’t posted since the 16th of April. I hope he comes back soon, I’d like to hear more about being a bomb dropper, nuclear too!
Yes, I was actually a little concerned and sent him a PM earlier.
GQ gotta stick together.
Prophetic statement from 01-07-2007 on both counts.
Which one was this?
And I bet the nuke wasn’t underwater, where you couldn’t tell which wire was the red one or the green one you had to cut.
The film Goldfinger. They were in Fort Knox, Goldfinger planning to make US gold reserves worthlessly radioactive, and therefore his personal gold more valuable.
Hardly. Whilst not wrong, it’s not much that wasn’t pretty obvious by 2007.
Iread that there was a time that some of the bombs had such “good” safeties that they might not have gone off in an actual war. THAT would have been embarrassing!
“What if they gave a war and no bombs came?”
Fascinating thread.
In terms of the movie, however, we never see the bomber crew after the detonation, so we don’t know for sure if they got far enough away or not.
If they didn’t just as well, since they would get an unexpected response to their bit of heroism - which is one of the great ironies of the movie.
Yes. And see Fail-Safe for a much more serious take on the subject.
While we all wait for LSLGuy to return, here’s a youtube clip of a B-52 performing the “Laydown” bomb drop procedure he was talking about for a practice B-28 nuclear bomb.
I noted a couple of things about the clip.
[ul]
[li]First, as he noted, it’s a really cool parachute they use to decelerate the bomb from the 300-500 knot speed the B-52’s moving along at, to nearly zero forward velocity, judging by the impact of the bomb. [/li][li]Second, for an unguided bomb, the B-52 guys really were accurate, assuming that black and white striped post was their target. In any event, the bomb landed right in the middle of the gray pad that I assume they were aiming for. [/li][li]Third, I thought it was funny that there was a voice counting, “eighty-two, eighty-three, eighty-four,” until the bomb “exploded.” (At 1:22 on the clip) Seems like enough time that a motivated target might be able to do something to the bomb, but I imagine they probably had other things to do instead of looking around for the one ton steel cigar that someone just dropped near them.[/li][/ul]
Aside, a minute and a half strikes me as way too much time, given the max yield on a B-28 is about a megaton and a half. Even at 300 knots, 7.5 nautical miles should be far enough, given, as LSLGuy told us, that the blast wave still has to catch up to you. IIRC, B-52’s can go even faster at low level, but it didn’t look to my admittedly untrained eye that this pilot really was going that fast. OTOH, this B-52 was putting out quite a bit of soot, like other times I’ve seen when B-52s were putting the hammer down, like e.g., minimum interval takeoff drills. Although, not every one of the bombers in that clip is smoking like a chimney. Guess it varies depending on plane, altitude, and engine setting.
General Turgidson has a book “Equivalent Cities in Megadeaths” in front of him, which I take to be a direct reference to Fail Safe.