Atomic demolition munition
Atomic demolition munitions, colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ADMs were developed for both military and civilian purposes. As weapons, they were designed to be exploded in the forward battle area, in order to block or channel enemy forces. Non-militarily, they were designed for demolition, mining or earthmoving. Apart from testing, however, they have never been used for either purpose.
Military uses
Instead of being delivered to the target by missiles, rockets, or artillery shells, ADMs were intended to be emplaced by soldiers. Due to their relatively small size and light weight, ADMs could be emplaced by military engineers or special forces teams, then detonated on command or by timer to create massive obstructions. By destroying key terrain features or choke points such as bridges, dams, mountain passes and tunnels, ADMs could serve to create physical as well as radiological obstacles to the movement of enemy forces and thus channel them into prepared killing zones.According to official accounts, the United States deployed ADMs overseas in Italy and West Germany during the Cold War. The most modern types were deployed in South Korea. Seymour Hersh referred to the deployment of ADMs along the Golan Heights by Israel in the early 1980s.
Civilian uses
ADMs have never been used commercially although similar small devices, often modified to cut down on fission yield and maximize fusion, have been deeply buried to put out gas well fires as part of the Soviet test program.The Soviet Union tested the use of nuclear devices for mining and natural gas extraction on several occasions starting in the mid-1960s, as part of the Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy program. Tests for similar purposes were carried out in the United States under Operation Plowshare, but due to radioactive contamination caused by the tests, no direct commercial use was made of the technology although they were successful at nucleosynthesis and probing the composition of the Earth's deep crust by Vibroseis, which has helped mining company prospecting.
United States ADMs
In the 1950s and 1960s, the United States developed several different types of lightweight nuclear devices. The main one was the W54, a cylinder 40 by 60 cm that weighed 23 kg. It was fired by a mechanical timer and had a variable yield equivalent to between 10 tons and 1 kt of TNT. A field non-variable yield version of the W54 nuclear device was used in the Davy Crockett Weapon System.- W7/ADM-B
- T4 ADM gun type
- W30/Tactical Atomic Demolition Munition
- W31/ADM
- W45/Medium Atomic Demolition Munition
- W54/Special Atomic Demolition Munition
TADM
SADM
The Special Atomic Demolition Munition was a family of man-portable nuclear weapons based on the B54/W54 SADM fielded by the US military, but never used in actual combat. The US Army planned to use the weapons in Europe in the event of a Soviet invasion. US Army Engineers would use the weapon to irradiate, destroy, and deny key routes of communication through limited terrain such as the Fulda Gap. Green Light teams were trained to parachute into Soviet occupied western Europe with the SADM and destroy power plants, bridges, and dams. Yields were selectable from two options of 0.1 or 0.2 kilotons.The weapon was designed to allow one person to parachute from any type of aircraft carrying the weapon package and place it in a harbor or other strategic location that could be accessed from the sea. Another parachutist without a weapon package would follow the first to provide support as needed.
The team would place the weapon package in the target location, set the timer, and swim out into the ocean where they would be retrieved by a submarine or a high-speed surface water craft.
MADM
The Medium Atomic Demolition Munition was a tactical nuclear weapon developed by the United States during the Cold War. They were designed to be used as nuclear land mines and for other tactical purposes, with a relatively low explosive yield from a W45 warhead, between 1 and 15 kilotons. Each MADM weighed around 400 lb total. They were produced between 1965 and 1986.Russian controversy with ADMs
In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and Russia developed a deep cooperation designed to assure the security of Russia's nuclear arsenal. While a number of steps were taken to consolidate and improve the security of Russia's strategic nuclear arms, particularly under the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, concern remained over the security of the Russian tactical nuclear weapons arsenal. In particular, a serious debate arose over the status of what are known as "suitcase nuclear weapons", very small Soviet-era nuclear devices. The term suitcase nuke is generally used to describe any type of small, man-portable nuclear device although there is serious debate as to the validity of the term itself. In a worst case analysis, a suitcase nuke would be small enough to be hand-carried into a major population or leadership center undetected and then detonated. Although, by most accounts, the yield of such a device is likely far less than ten kilotons, its combined effects may have the potential to kill tens of thousands, if not more. There is a great deal of confusion over just how many of these suitcase devices exist or if they even exist at all. By some accounts, the Soviet Union built hundreds of these devices, of which several dozen were missing. Based on other reports, suitcase nukes were never built in large numbers or were never deployed.There is no definitive open source information on the number, location, security, or status of these suitcase nuclear bombs. No Soviet suitcase bomb or any of its presumed components has ever been found, much less used, in the three decades after the collapse of the USSR., it is likely they would not work or would fizzle at worst by lack of the required specialized maintenance common to all nuclear weapons.
''Frontline'' broadcast about suitcase nukes
In May 1997 General Alexander Lebed told an American Congressional delegation that Russia had lost dozens of atomic demolition units. In a later interview with American investigative program 60 Minutes he revised his estimate, saying that they had lost more than 100 units - a claim that the Russian government rejected.On 23 February 1999, the PBS investigative program Frontline aired a special on Russian nuclear security that included a series of interviews with several of the individuals who spoke publicly during the 1997 debate on suitcase nukes. Alexei Yablokov appeared and reasserted his position that some number of small atomic charges had been built, even going so far as to speak of their weight. Yablokov accused the Russian government of misleading the public on the situation, pointing to the inconsistencies in denials by the FSB, MINATOM, and the information that was publicly available on the Internet. On the same program, Congressman Curt Weldon recounted a meeting he held in December 1997 with Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev. During this meeting, Weldon asked Sergeyev specifically about the small ADM devices. According to Weldon, Sergeyev's response was: "Yes, we did build them, we are in the process of destroying them, and by the year 2000 we will have destroyed all of our small atomic demolition devices." Weldon went on to express confidence in Sergeyev's statement but also raised concern as to whether or not the Russian government had accounted for all of its nuclear devices. Frontline also featured several American and Russian experts and officials who presented differing views on the subject. General Vladimir Dvorkin, a former officer in the Strategic Rocket Forces and subsequently Director of the Fourth Central Research Institute in Moscow, admitted that "some small devices existed in the United States and Russia" but that something that small would have a very limited shelf life and would have little deterrent value. Dvorkin discounted the validity of statements, saying "...Lebed is probably the least informed person as far as this topic is concerned... an expert in military folklore." The former commander of U.S. nuclear forces, retired General Eugene Habiger, also appeared on Frontline and expressed doubt about the size of such devices, calling the term suitcase "a little optimistic." Additionally, Habiger spoke of the systems set up by the Russians to track their nuclear weapons, saying "If the Russians were as deadly serious about the accountability of the nuclear weapons that I saw and have been involved with, I can only surmise that they have the same concerns with the smaller weapons."