T-4 Atomic Demolition Munition on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The T4
Allbombs.html list of nuclear weapons at nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices Atomic demolition munitions Gun-type nuclear bombs Nuclear weapons of the United States Land mines of the United States Cold War weapons of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s
The T4 Atomic Demolition Munition
Atomic demolition munitions (ADMs), colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ADMs were developed for both military and civilian purposes. As weapons, they were designed to be exploded in the forward battle a ...
(ADM) was a nuclear weapon derived from the American W9 nuclear artillery shell.
History
The T4 was produced in 1957 from recycled W9fissile
In nuclear engineering, fissile material is material capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction. By definition, fissile material can sustain a chain reaction with neutrons of thermal energy. The predominant neutron energy may be typ ...
components and was in service until 1963, when it was replaced with W30
The W30 was an American nuclear warhead used on the RIM-8 Talos surface-to-air missile and the Tactical Atomic Demolition Munition (TADM).
The W30 was in diameter and long, weighing depending on the version.
The Talos missile variants were ...
Tactical Atomic Demolition Munition
Atomic demolition munitions (ADMs), colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ADMs were developed for both military and civilian purposes. As weapons, they were designed to be exploded in the forward battle a ...
s and W45 Medium Atomic Demolition Munition
Medium Atomic Demolition Munition (MADM) was a tactical nuclear weapon developed by the United States during the Cold War. It was an Atomic demolition munition, a combat engineering device for demolition of structures and for battlefield shapin ...
s.
The weapon weighed and could be broken down into four sections for transport by a four-man crew.
Media coverage
An article in the mid-1990s in '' Soldier of Fortune'' magazine by a formerUS Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
Underwater Demolition Team
Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), or frogmen, were amphibious units created by the United States Navy during World War II with specialized non-tactical missions. They were predecessors of the navy's current SEAL teams.
Their primary WWII func ...
member described the T4 ADM without naming it. The description was moderately detailed, including that the T4 was assembled out of a number of separate components:
*A gun barrel assembly, with the fission “bullet” and propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
and detonator
A detonator, frequently a blasting cap, is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the last two being the most common.
The commercial use of explosives uses electri ...
preloaded
*A base assembly, which the gun barrel screwed into, which was normally handled empty
*Three heavy HEU rings, which were added to the base assembly and came in separate carrying cases
These five components would be assembled by first transporting all five components to the target area, then loading the three uranium rings into the base assembly, then screwing the gun barrel assembly into the base. According to the article, two combination locks with different combinations were then activated by different team members, then the weapon could be armed and the timer set. Each component was reportedly heavy enough that it was a full load for one team member.
Reportedly, a major operational issue with planned usage of the T4 was the poor projected success rate of parachuting five team members into hostile territory at sea with a heavy load, having them all land close together, while being sufficiently uninjured to be able to finish transporting the weapon's components and assemble them. Several practice exercises failed to complete when one or more team members landed too far away or were injured. Future ADM units were single-component and while they might require several people's codes to arm, were a single physical unit which did not need field assembly.
See also
*W54
The W54 (also known as the Mark 54 or B54) was a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the late 1950s. The weapon is notable for being the smallest nuclear weapon in both weight and yield to have entered US service. It wa ...
Special Atomic Demolition Munition
The Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM), also known as the XM129 and XM159 Atomic Demolition Charges, and the B54 bomb was a nuclear man-portable atomic demolition munition (ADM) system fielded by the US military from the 1960s to 1980 ...
* List of nuclear weapons
This is a list of nuclear weapons listed according to country of origin, and then by type within the states.
United States
US nuclear weapons of all types – bombs, warheads, shells, and others – are numbered in the same sequence starting wi ...
References
External links
Allbombs.html list of nuclear weapons at nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices Atomic demolition munitions Gun-type nuclear bombs Nuclear weapons of the United States Land mines of the United States Cold War weapons of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s