14. That Crazy Time When America Had Jeep-Mounted Nukes
Once upon a time, the US Army had soldiers running around West Germany and South Korea with nukes on Jeeps. The Davy Crockett Weapon System was a smoothbore recoilless rifle that fired a tactical nuclear explosive to a range of up to 1.25 with the M-28 version of the weapon. The upgraded M-29 version increased the range to 2.5 miles. Developed during the Cold War in the 1950s, over 2000 Davy Crocketts and their launch systems were deployed with US ground forces from 1961 to 1971.
It was a notoriously inaccurate weapon – but then again, pinpoint accuracy was not a big deal, considering its warhead. The Davy Crockett’s deadliness stemmed more from its radioactivity than from its explosive yield. The warhead produced an instantly lethal dose of radiation within a 500-foot radius, and an incapacitating and likely fatal dose within a quarter-mile. As such, the weapon was more of a broad area radiation dispenser than a surgical smart bomb. However, as seen below, the weapon had a crazy glitch: it was dangerous to its own users.