Davy Crockett (Nuclear device)

Louis · Monday at 3:46 AM

The M28/M29 Davy Crockett Weapon System was a tactical nuclear recoilless smoothbore gun designed to fire the M388 nuclear projectile, which was equipped with the W54 nuclear warhead. Deployed by the USA during the Cold War, could fire nuclear-tipped warheads at close-range targets.

The Army developed two Davy Crockett delivery systems: the 4-inch M28 with a 1.25-mile range, and the 6.1-inch M29 with a 2.5-mile range. Each fired an M388 fission device with an M54 warhead. Requiring a three-man crew, the weapon was carried on a vehicle and could be fired directly from it or from a dismounted tripod.

The Army produced some 2,100 Davy Crocketts beginning in 1956, deploying them in Europe between 1961 and 1971. In West Germany the Army deployed M29s with heavy mortar platoons.

Rico · Monday at 6:15 AM

Range of 1.25 or 2.5 mile range?? ... what was the blast radius of the warhead?

A Canadian Cat · Monday at 2:20 PM

This: https://remm.hhs.gov/zones_nucleardetonation.htm
Says moderate damage out to 1mile for 10kton and light damage out to 3 miles. It does not sound like being a crew for this would be very nice. The 20kton version would have been worse.

Rico · Monday at 3:31 PM

So you can't really fire it from good distance behind your own lines as you would obliterate a bunch of your own frontline troops?

Louis · 2025-03-25T01:47:14+0000

I don't know, for now I would stay away from that.

From Quora:
"The “Davy Crockett” was a low yield warhead designed for tactical use on the battlefield, specifically to destroy large Soviet armoured formations without the need to deploy large conventional forces or large artillery concentrations. It was also assumed at the time that aircraft might be unable to deliver enough conventional explosives to stop large Soviet formations as well.

The main issue with the Davy Crockett was more to do with the delivery system, which was essentially an oversized recoiless rifle. While small and very portable, the lack of range meant the crew firing the weapon was unlikely to be out of the danger radius of the explosion or the nuclear effects. There was also the issue of having large numbers of nuclear warheads loose in armouries and on the battlefield; security and control of the weapons was a huge issue (this was also true of “nuclear land mines”

HOA_KSOP · 2025-03-25T01:53:42+0000

Nuclear land mines....seriously?

HOA_KSOP · 2025-03-25T01:55:55+0000

Louis said:
The M28/M29 Davy Crockett Weapon System was a tactical nuclear recoilless smoothbore gun designed to fire the M388 nuclear projectile, which was equipped with the W54 nuclear warhead. Deployed by the USA during the Cold War, could fire nuclear-tipped warheads at close-range targets.

The Army developed two Davy Crockett delivery systems: the 4-inch M28 with a 1.25-mile range, and the 6.1-inch M29 with a 2.5-mile range. Each fired an M388 fission device with an M54 warhead. Requiring a three-man crew, the weapon was carried on a vehicle and could be fired directly from it or from a dismounted tripod.

The Army produced some 2,100 Davy Crocketts beginning in 1956, deploying them in Europe between 1961 and 1971. In West Germany the Army deployed M29s with heavy mortar platoons.

3 PFC's and a brown bar LT....yeah, expendable is about right to describe those poor bastards...I am still shaking my head about nuclear land mines...and I thought the nuclear powered tank couldn't be topped....