The Davy Crockett Tactical Nuclear Recoilless RifleWorld War II saw the first extensive developments
The Davy Crockett Tactical Nuclear Recoilless RifleWorld War II saw the first extensive developments of the recoilless rifle. Appearing to be a bazooka or man portable rocket launcher, the recoilless rifle is actually a light infantry artillery piece designed to fire large caliber shells. To avoid the overwhelming recoil of firing, say, a 105mm shell, a recoiless rifle is designed to direct most gasses out the rear of the weapon, thus reducing it’s recoil and making it manageable by regular infantry.In the 1950’s, the US Army took the firepower of the recoilless rifle to a whole new level by developing the M-28 and M-29 Davy Crockett Weapons System. Invented to fend back the Soviet hordes expected to invade Europe during the Cold War, the Davy Crockett was a recoilless rifle designed to fire a small tactical nuclear warhead. It might sound extreme, but the Davy Crockett was not that big of a warhead, at least not for a nuclear weapon. Firing a 51 lb W-54 warhead, the explosion produced by the Davy Crockett had a yield somewhere between 10-20 tons of TNT. By contrast, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield equivalent of 16 kilotons of TNT. However, the deadliness of the Davy Crockett was not in its explosive power, but the radiation produced by the weapon. Within 150 meters of the blast the weapon produced enough radiation to instantly kill all exposed. Lethal radiation levels were emitted up to 500 meters, and incapacitating levels were emitted hundreds of meters more.Compact and mobile, the Davy Crockett could be mounted on a tripod operated by a 3 man crew, or mounted on vehicles such as jeeps and armored personnel carriers. The M-28 launcher had a range of around 1.7 miles while the M-29 launcher had a range or 2.5 miles. They were deployed in Europe and Asia between 1961 and 1971, with around 2,100 produced. By the late 1960’s they were decommissioned as the resulting radiation of the weapon posed as much as a risk to its crew as it did the enemy. -- source link
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