Not Technically Fallout Related

[4thofeleven]

You might remember a while back I talked out about the M-388 “Davy Crockett” tactical nuclear recoilless rifle, aka the smallest nuclear warhead ever.

Well, it turns out that those ingenious American weapons designers, having developed the warhead for the M-388, decided to start thinking about what else you could do with a tiny nuclear device.

The obvious conclusion? Use it in an air-to-air missile! From Wikipedia: “…The GAR-11 used a sub-kiloton (250 ton) W54 warhead shared with the 'Davy Crockett' M-388 recoilless rifle projectile, rather than the larger W25 warhead of the AIR-2 Genie nuclear rocket.
Out of concern for the problems inherent in using nuclear weapons over friendly territory, a conventional version of the GAR-11, the GAR-11A, was developed…”

Seriously, a nuclear air-to-air missile? Unless you’re fighting dragons or some sort of boss mothership in a shoot em up game, when exactly would this weapon be anything other than overkill?

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

I am sure the military has some vicious gnats to take down.

*headdesk*

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised this weapon doesn't come up in UFOlogy - I mean, hell, *I'm* struggling to come up with an explanation for this other than "To fight off the alien motherships the government is covering up!"

[sunnyskywalker]

If the public knew the Romulans decided to time-travel back and destroy Earth in the early 21st century, there would be mass panic. Clearly the only course of action is to continue quietly developing Death Stars for our defense.