I think rockets are the only manned, self-destructing devices. I’ll add mines to the list of other stuff like top-secret file cabinets and such. I can’t think of anything else there is that does this.
Destroying stuff in the military appears to be a very manual process. If you want to get rid of your ship, you’re going to have to open the safe, burn the codebook, and manually open some valves. Even with airplanes, there don’t appear to be any explosives - though bombing downed aircraft after the fact seems standard. For example when the American EP-3 spy plane landed in China, the high-tech use of axes and shredders was required, something the crew were apparently trained to do. (I want that training! I’ll bet with new computer equipment, an electronic equivalent is done, as it’s easy to do and fairly easy to reverse if you just forgot the password is “ir@q sUx0rs” three times in a row.
As for why such a final-resort device would be needed, one need only look at the sci-fi you mentioned. (And really, searching for “self destruct” will give you more Macross than even the most die-hard anime fan needs).
Stopping your out-of-control, highly dangerous vehicle from destroying stuff you don’t wanna destroy.
Keeping your technology away from the evil invading empire. (And we all know what those slimy Kalderians do with prisoners, so it’s a better way to go really)
I’ve seen in the movies where the actor leaves something with several lawyers and if he does not contact then X times per day, they are either instructed to publish or destroy the information. Does this happen in real life?
I saw a Beyond 2000 (I think it was that) show on a system to protect the contents of an armored car. In case of hijacking, the driver would trigger a foam-bomb that would explode (or was it two spray-jet nozzels?) in the compartment and instantly harden. It would take days to cut and clean out all of the foam, so the burglars couldn’t get anything inside.
Not really self-destruct, but insteresting I thought.
Don’t they have self-destruct mechanisms in labs when working with hazardous stuff? Like super-viruses or ??? they can destroy anything that is getting out of hand? No clue, just curious.
And what about software and hardware self-destructs? Laptops, cell-phones and even DVD’s can have mechanisms to destroy themselves.
I’m not sure of the ships name, it may have been HMS Buldog but after forcing a U-Boat to surface a party of seamen went aboard despite the ship sinking and stole the Navy version of the machine along with code books. sadly Jon Bon Jovi wasnt killed in the process unlike U-571.
Enigmas were captured off Several German subs and ships during WWII. The Germans didn’t know for sure whether the Allies had them, but in their minds it didn’t matter. They were sure that the rings and plugs offered so many coding possibilities that posession of the machine itself was not sufficient to break their codes. They were correct. The Allies had do do all kinds of other stuff as well.
Back to the OP. I believe some aircraft also have autodestruct systems. Gary Powers wrote that he was supposed to trigger a series of charges, but that conditions in the aircraft afer the baialout made it impossible to do so. From that one might infer that other U2s and maybe SR71s had destructive charges.
In my mind “auto-destruct” means the decision is out of human hands, and NO systems are built that way, AFAIK. I don’t think there are any environmental conditions which could be defined clearly enough to a computer to leave the decision making to one.
Lots of naval ships used to sail with “scuttling charges”. Do these qualify, Hail Ants?
Two Enigma machines were captured from submarines during WWII. But that’s not all. The important thing to recover was the code books that governed how the machine was set up.
In February 1940, three rotors (6 & 7) were recovered from U-33 by HMS Gleaner, a British mine sweeper. A number 8 rotor was recovered from U-13 also in 1940. The code books for February 1940 was recovered from a patrol vessel by the HMS Somali.
The first Enigma machine was recovered from U-110 in 1941 by HMS Bulldog. It was a three rotor machine recovered with the code books.
In 1942 code books for the four rotor Enigma were recovered from U-559 by HMS Petard. The machine was not recovered. Two British sailors were drowned attempting to recover it. Jon Bon Jovi was not onboard at any time.
On June 4th 1944, the USN recovered an Enigma machine from U-505. By this stage, recovery of the machine by itself was of little use. The 505 is on display in Chicago
Not quite on-topic, but most modern American ordinance now carries a back-up auto-destruct mechanism in case it is a dud. I’m not sure, but I think it’s now American policy that all of its area denial weapons (land mines) must have an armed auto-destruct mechanism when deployed, so that they’ll render themselves useless after a period of time and not maim the innocent people who return to the area when the conflict is over.
During the Vietnam conflict, the U.S. seeded the Ho Chi Minh trail with sensors as part of the IGLOO WHITE program. One particular sensor was called the Air-Delivered Seismic Intrusion Detector (ADSID). It looked like a lawn dart and was designed to penetrate into the ground when air-dropped over the trail. Its antennae were camouflaged to resemble weeds.
But the best part was this–knowing that some of them would be found, the ADSIDs also incorporated a nasty auto-destruct feature which would activate if the device was disturbed. Thus it was both a passive sensor and a mean little area denial weapon.
I believe there is a working model of a DVD disc that allows one showing and then erases itself. Studios are considering using it for consumers to allow you to rent a movie that is still in theaters, but you wouldn’t be able to see it more than once without paying extra.
On April 1, 2001, one of the Air Force’s EP3 EW planes was forced to land in China. I recall CNN stories reporting that the crew had used auto-destruct devices to eliminate the top secret data and to destroy circuitry in several of the electronic devices on board, then threw some of the devices off the plane before landing. Strange, but I can’t find references to this on the web.
I can sort of confirm that, tarfu. Last year I attended a lecture by the pilot of that plane, Lt. Shane Osborn. Here’s a summary of the incident from Jane’s.
Osborn said that not only did they fry everything that had an auto-destruct, but they also wiped most of the software they could wipe. The engineers were the last ones off the plane, having taken time to creatively redecorate a lot of the hardware. Apparently they did some rewiring as well in order to confuse their captors.
Interestingly enough, the remains of the aircraft were returned to the U.S. last year, and it’s being refurbished to make a new EP-3.
Here’s a happy “self-destruct” story: Way back in the early sixties, NASA was experimenting with early versions of on-board nuclear reactors (radioisotope thermoelectric generators) to power navigation systems of spacecraft. One such RTG, SNAP (space nuclear auxiliary power) 9-A went up on board a Transit space vehicle in December of 1964. The launch vehicle failed shortly after lift-off, though, and the mission was aborted. The SNAP 9-A unit disintegrated in the atmosphere, dusting our beautiful blue planet with 2.1 pounds of Plutonium-238. Traces of the isotope released by the destruction of SNAP 9-A are still detectable in soil samples from all corners of the earth. Every human being on earth also carries plutonium in his or her body from the SNAP incident. Dr. John Gofman, professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, a co-discoverer of the plutonium and uranium isotopes as a member of the Manhattan Project, theorizes that SNAP 9-A is responsible for increased numbers of lung cancer cases around the world. NASA calls the Transit 5-BN-3 abort “successful” and “as designed”.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
p.s., there are still several SNAP variant RTG’s in earth orbit. Sleep tight!
checks pulse
Yup, I’m still alive. You too? Good. No sense worrying about it, then.
My dad tells me that his office in Vietnam had the thermite filing cabinets, which were apparently standard military issue regardless of the status of the documents being filed. He also expressed his doubts about the effectiveness or speed they would have in destroying the documents.
And as for the U-2, according to Powers’ book on the subject, the plane was equipped with an explosive device primarily to destroy the camera and film. He was also issued a suicide pin to be used in the event of torture, but its use was left to his discretion. He also said that he was instructed that if captured, he might as well tell everything, because they would get it out of him anyway, so one presumes that “destruction of the pilot” was not one of Uncle Sam’s priorities, there.
In the bad old days, the boats (submarines) I used to sail upon (in) had a “Ship’s Destruction Bill,” a procedure for ruining everything useful in the boat and destroying all sensitive material. Entertaining reading!
I think that was based on another urban legend (or NASA SOP) that astronauts have suicide pills just in case they get stranded and are unable to be rescued.
They used to until they realized that most space virus feed off energy and that the self destruct device would only make them grow at an exponential rate.
I’ll bet with new computer equipment, an electronic equivalent is done, as it’s easy to do and fairly easy to reverse if you just forgot the password is “ir@q sUx0rs” three times in a row.