22-05-2025
The US ‘misplaced' these nuclear weapons
Of all things to lose track of, billion-dollar weapons of mass destruction should be high on the list. At least that's something common sense would have you believe. Despite the level of international security that could be at risk, the lost funds, and the pure insanity of losing something so important, Uncle Sam has done just that. Multiple times over.
Take a look at these stranger-than-fiction instances of lost nuclear missiles and the stories of how they fell off the government's radar. Not once, not twice, but six times, nuclear missiles were misfired or misplaced. In fact, it took so many times, it was given an official name, Broken Arrow, with the first instance dating back to 1950.
The first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945, and just eight years later, the first nuclear bomb went missing. When a B-47 bomber was in a mid-air collision off the coast of Georgia, it had been carrying a 7,600-pound Mark 15 hydrogen thermonuclear bomb. With an explosive yield of 3.8 megatons (that's 190 times more powerful than the Fat Man bomb), it held some serious impact ability.
The plane survived with minimal damage, though the pilot was worried the Mark 15 would eject on its own. To keep this from happening, the pilot jettisoned the bomb into the water, near Tybee Island.
More than 100 Navy members spent two months looking for the bomb, even using sonar technology to search in the water. However, it was never found. Due to this snafu, the Air Force told the public the plutonium warhead had been removed prior to its drop. However, in 1994, documents from a 1966 Congressional testimony refuted that and said the Mark 15 was still intact with its nuclear capabilities.
In 1965, a Douglas A-4E Skyhawk from the Navy crashed into the Western Pacific with a nuclear bomb in tow. Neither it nor the plane's pilot was ever recovered despite extensive searches. The event took place 68 miles from Japan during a training incident. At one time, it was speculated that there were two bombs on the aircraft, while other sources say the plane was absent from ammunition. However, the U.S. came clean in 1989, when the DoD admitted it was a one-megaton H Bomb, causing backlash from Japan when they learned of the fall within their territory.
Another thermonuclear bomb went missing in 1966 when it was dispersed from a military aircraft. Three of the fallen bombs were recovered, while the fourth sunk to the bottom of the sea near Spain. It contained a massive 1.1 megatonne warhead and was viewed by a local fisherman who watched it drop from the sky and into the ocean. Though it too was searched for, military members were not able to recover the bomb.
Then in 1968, the USS Scorpion, a Navy submarine, imploded with its crew and two Mark 45 torpedoes on board. After the submarine failed to arrive at its intended destination, a search was enacted, locating the submarine's wreckage in the North Atlantic Ocean. Though the reason for its implosion was not determined, the two nuclear weapons were located, still intact. Scientific data shows that the uranium and plutonium cores were likely corroded and remained within the casings or vessel itself, as the outside sediment showed no signs of the material.
In total, 32 Broken Arrow incidents have been reported. In addition to the lost bombs, accidental detonations or other incidents are included in that number. These are only the ones that have been admitted, which is an interesting fact considering some of the above incidents weren't corroborated until decades after the fact.
The ocean losses are somewhat easier to swallow. Though the danger is no less present, there are miles and miles of seafloor to search, with additional factors like currents, changes in depth, and the inability to see what's below.
It serves as a good reminder that we don't always know what Uncle Sam is up to or what its missions may be. That's why it's often unlikely that military spouses know what their member is up to, and why they take any instructions with a grain of salt, knowing it could change at any moment.
Surprisingly, this loss of six nuclear bombs is considered a good track record in comparison with other countries, and the number of nuclear weapons that have been produced by the U.S.
