Tactical Nuclear Warfare: "Atomic Battlefield" The Big Picture circa 1957 US Army 29min

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• published: 07 Aug 2012
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more at http://quickfound.net/links/military_news_and_links.html "Cameras of "THE BIG PICTURE" focus on Desert Rock, Nevada -- In this issue of THE BIG PICTURE, the camera swings to the barren flats near Desert Rock, Nevada, where in the latest atomic blast, one of the new Army's Pentomic organizations was actually employed in the field in conjunction with an atomic detonation. Since this is the age of the atom, the importance of the Army and its mission--seizing and retaining control of the land -- takes on a new meaning. The land may he scarred and seared by weapons which stun the power of reason, but so long as it remains vital to victory it is the task of the soldier to secure it and hold it. The battlefield of the future, if it exists, may well be an atomic battlefield. As is explained in this film presentation, that brutal fact has forced upon the Army the absolute necessity of testing both men and tactical concepts under atomic conditions. In test blasts over the last few years, the Army has learned much about the response of the individual soldier. Out of the special needs imposed by atomic conditions -- the need for wide dispersion of forces, for instance --the structure of a combat force in the field has been developed to provide a mobility and a fluidity which troops in warfare have never had before." Public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_nuclear_weapon A tactical nuclear weapon (or TNW) refers to a nuclear weapon which is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations... Tactical nuclear weapons were a large part of the peak nuclear weapons stockpile levels during the Cold War. Tactical weapons include not only gravity bombs and short-range missiles, but also artillery shells, land mines, depth charges, and torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare. Also in this category are nuclear armed ground-based or shipborne surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and air-to-air missiles. Small, two-man portable, or truck-portable, tactical weapons (sometimes misleadingly referred to as suitcase nukes), such as the Special Atomic Demolition Munition and the Davy Crockett recoilless rifle, have been developed, although the difficulty of combining sufficient yield with portability could limit their military utility. In wartime, such explosives could be used for demolishing "choke-points" to enemy offensives, such as at tunnels, narrow mountain passes, and long viaducts. Twenty nuclear torpedo sea mines were alleged by the International Atomic Energy Agency to have been laid on 10 January 1970 by a Soviet November class attack submarine in the Bay of Naples to, in a time of war, destroy or deny access to the US Seventh Fleet. They are believed to still be on the seabed. Other new tactical weapons undergoing research include earth penetrating weapons which are designed to target enemy-held caves or deep-underground bunkers. ...Modern tactical nuclear warheads have yields up to the tens of kilotons, or potentially hundreds, several times that of the weapons used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some tactical nuclear weapons have specific features meant to enhance their battlefield characteristics, such as variable yield... or enhanced radiation weapons (the so-called "neutron bombs") which are meant to maximize ionizing radiation exposure while minimizing blast effects. Use of tactical nuclear weapons against similarly-armed opponents carries a significant danger of quickly escalating the conflict... For example, firing a low-yield nuclear artillery shell similar to the W48 (with a yield equivalent to 72 tons of TNT) at the enemy invites retaliation. It may provoke the enemy into responding with several nuclear artillery shells similar to the W79, which had a 1 kiloton yield. The response to these 1 kiloton nuclear artillery shells may be to retaliate by firing a tactical nuclear missile similar to a French Pluton (15 kiloton yield) or the American MGM-52 Lance, fitted with a W70 variable yield warhead ranging between 1 and 100 kilotons... Early Permissive Action Links could be as simple as a mechanical combination lock. If a relatively junior officer in control of a small tactical nuclear weapon (e.g. the M29 Davy Crockett) were in imminent danger of being overwhelmed by enemy forces, he could request permission to fire it and due to decentralised control of warhead authorization, his request might quickly be granted during a crisis. For these reasons, stockpiles of tactical nuclear warheads in most countries' arsenals have been dramatically reduced c. 2010, and the smallest types have been completely eliminated.