- Details
- Archive Videos
Sandia National Labs Film - June 1986 Joint Test Assembly (JTA) airdrop from a B-52.
Look for the smoke markers going off after the weapon lands after the timer counts down.
- Details
- Archive Videos
0800047 - U.S. Navy Training Film - Delivery of Atomic Weapons by Light Carrier Aircraft - No date - 18:20 - Black&White - Mission: Special nuclear weapon delivery by an A-7 carrier aircraft. This video features six different methods of delivery used to achieve maximum bombing accuracy and provide adequate safety margins for the crew and the aircraft.
Dummy B-43 bombs were used for the different drop tests, but actual nuclear explosions, including the mushroom clouds, were edited into the film to provide a realistic view of what the actual effects would have been if live nuclear weapons had been detonated. The B-43 was a multipurpose thermonuclear weapon capable of detonation by laydown (i.e., low-altitude parachute deployment), retard (i.e., conventional parachute deployment), and free-fall airbursts. The weapon was in the nuclear stockpile from 1961 until 1991.
- Details
- Archive Videos
0800058 - U.S. Navy Training Film - Mark 43 and Mark 57 Weapons - Shipboard Handling, Including Aircraft Loading - 1963 -20:25 - Black&White - An A-4 Skyhawk aircraft rises into view on a platform aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence. A double rigged crane transfers Mark 43 and Mark 57 nuclear weapons in a coffin to the Independence from a carrier support ship. This video demonstrates how nuclear weapons and delivery aircraft function in a coordinated effort that could effectively be used against an enemy of the U.S. The weapons, one by one, are placed on an elevator and taken to a lower deck to await mating with an A-4. They are removed from the transportation cart and placed in a sturdy fixture bolted to the floor.
Reflecting the times in 1963, the narrator of the video emphasizes the importance of readiness and safety as twin components of reliability to counter any enemy threat in the Cold War. The video shows a drill in which a nuclear strike plan is created and sent to weapon assembly officers on board. They direct teams to take the weapons from storage, move them to the A-4s, and install them.
Subcategories
Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Films
These are a series of films that have been declassified by the Department of Energy.
They consist of films of nuclear tests, weapons development and other weapons related activities.