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jsheard

> Nuclear Landmines

You underestimate how stupid Cold War weapon projects got, they were putting nukes in anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_demolition_munition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock

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Bat bombs (bombs full of bats with time-delayed releases of napalm) were developed in World War II.

Documented in Harvard professor Louis Fieser's autobiographical The Scientific Method: A Personal Account of Unusual Projects in War and in Peace

https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/the_scienti...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Fieser

    > The carrying power of a 10-11 gram
    > bat is indeed amazing, some 15-18 grams; the incendiary bomb was in this
    > range (17.5 grams). Bats can carry such loads for miles. And bats with
    > dummy bombs released in housed areas dragged the loads into sites highly
    > favorable for fire-starting. W e released bats successfully at various altitudes
    > both from the B-2 S and from an open Attack Bomber, in which flying was
    > great fun.

omg

    > Then,
    > suddenly, X-ray was cancelled. I never learned the reason, but can make a
    > guess. The bats would be vectors for bombs, but they would be vectors also
    > for germs. Our side might be accused of initiating biological warfare.

oh yeah because being accused of doing something horrible while doing something horrible would be horrible.

I believe that they perceived it in the numbers. Exploding bombs will kill a limited number of people. Imagine the nightmare scenario that a bat-bomb will explode in a school and kill 10? 20? toddlers. Now imagine some virus that can wipe hundreds/thousands. This escalation would force the opponent's hand to respond appropriately, and if 'standard' war (bullets, artillery shells, missiles) is hell, chemical warfare is worse.

This only sounds like a ridiculous idea. The weapon was ridiculously effective during an unintentional test.

The Russians are working on their very own Project Pluto: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik

> Chicken-powered nuclear bomb

Now that's an interesting section (second link)

>A technical problem is that during winter, the temperature of buried devices can drop quickly, creating a possibility that the mechanisms of the mine will cease working due to low temperatures in the winter.[5] Various methods were studied to solve this problem, such as wrapping the bombs in insulating blankets.

One proposal suggested that live chickens would be sealed inside the casing, with a supply of food and water.[6] They would remain alive for approximately a week. Their body heat would apparently have been sufficient to keep the mine's components at a working temperature.

I mean, if you need to apply 10+ tons of TNT-equivalent to a target, it's a heck of a lot easier to carry. (Also literally, SADM)

SADM = Special Atomic Demolition Munition

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Mu...

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