Operation Hardtack II was a series of 37

nuclear test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, Nuclear weapon yield, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detona ...

s conducted by the United States in 1958 at the

Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the ...

. These tests followed the ''

Operation Argus Operation Argus was a series of United States low-yield, high-altitude nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted from 27 August to 9 September 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean. The tests were performed by the Defense Nucle ...

'' series and preceded the '' Operation Nougat'' series. With test moratoriums on the horizon, American weapons labs rushed out many new designs. A hard deadline for testing was set at midnight (0000 hrs), October 31, 1958, as negotiations were set to start that day, and the schedule shows it, with 29 tests executed in October, four of them on the last day. One other test was cancelled because weather delays postponed it across the midnight deadline. After the conclusion of Hardtack II, the United States announced a unilateral testing moratorium, which the Soviet Union joined after two last tests on November 1 and 3. In September 1961, the Soviet Union resumed nuclear testing—this period included the test of the most powerful nuclear device ever designed, the ''

Tsar Bomba The Tsar Bomba () ( code name: ''Ivan'' or ''Vanya''), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. Overall, the Soviet physicist Andrei ...

'' on October 30, 1961—and the United States followed suit with '' Operation Nougat''.

Test Blasts

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control Explosions in 1958 Hardtack II 1958 in military history 1958 in Nevada 1958 in the environment