The Mark 90 nuclear bomb, given the nickname "Betty", was a

cold war The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

nuclear depth charge A nuclear depth bomb is the nuclear equivalent of the conventional depth charge, and can be used in anti-submarine warfare for attacking submerged submarines. The Royal Navy, Soviet Navy, and United States Navy had nuclear depth bombs in their ...

, developed by the United States in 1952. It had a length of , a diameter of , and a weight of , and it carried a

Mark 7 Mark 7 is the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. This chapter explores Jesus' relationships with both fellow Jews and Gentiles. Jesus speaks with the Pharisees and scribes, and then with his discipl ...

nuclear warhead with a yield of 32

kiloton TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a t ...

s. Its purpose was to serve as an

anti-submarine weapon An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

for the

United States 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 ...

. A test of the Mark 90 was conducted in 1955, as

Operation Wigwam Operation Wigwam involved a single test of the Mark 90 "Betty" nuclear bomb. It was conducted between ''Operation Teapot'' and '' Project 56'' on May 14, 1955, about 500 miles (800 km) southwest of San Diego, California. 6,800 personnel ...

. All units were withdrawn from service by 1960.

Accident

On September 25, 1959, a United States Navy Martin P5M-2 Marlin (BuNo ''135540'', SG tailcode, '6', of

VP-50 VP-50 was a long-lived Patrol Squadron of the U.S. Navy, having held that designation for 39 years from 1953 to 1992. Its nickname was the ''Blue Dragons''. Originally established as VP-917 on 18 July 1946, redesignated Medium Patrol Squadron ...

) was patrolling out of

NAS Whidbey Island Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI) is a naval air station of the United States Navy located on two pieces of land near Oak Harbor, on Whidbey Island, in Island County, Washington. The main portion of the base, Ault Field, is about ...

when it was forced to ditch in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, about west of the

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

border. A Mark 90 depth charge casing was lost and never recovered, but it was not fitted with an active

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...

. The ten crew members were rescued by the

US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

, after ten hours in a raft. The press was not notified at the time.Gibson, James N. ''Nuclear Weapons of the United States – An Illustrated History''. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1996, , , Chapter 12, "Nuclear Anti-Submarine Weapons", p. 214.

References

External links

Official Defense Department film on 1955 underwater test of Mark 90 nuclear depth charge
{{United States nuclear devices Cold War anti-submarine weapons of the United States Depth charges Nuclear bombs of the United States

Accident

See also

References

External links