There are 82 users online
You can register for a user account here.
Login
Random Photos
Main Menu
Online
Library of Congress
Past Articles
Random Quotes
You must love soldiers in order to understand them, and understand them in order to lead them. -- Henri Turenne |
 Shortly after the end of WWII the US Air force established a group called AFOAT-ONE that flew regular air sampling flights around the periphery of the Soviet Union. I understand their mission was to pinpoint the site of plutonium production and more importantly the rate of production of Pu.The team used the ratio of 2 argon isotopes to monitor the rate which was very slow (verified by historian Richard Rhodes). It was already 1949 and although the Klaus Fuchs design was in their posession they lacked the thirty pounds of fuel required.
Meanwhile back in the US Los Alamos, having abandoned the inefficient gun-gadget designed a bomb core which used less Pu in the center surrounded by a shell of uranium-235 and by which the desired alpha was controlled by the Pu and which was a way to include U-235 in an implosion device. This geometry was termed as "composite". Many people outside the inner sanctum reasoned that composite referred to the presence in early models of a depleted uranium "tamper". Of a sudden and out of the blue the AFOAT-ONE mission was at an end and a new name and mission happened because the USSR had detonated their first nuclear bomb. Most everyone at the Lab presumed that the Russian bomb was a clone of the Trinity bomb fired in New Mexico 7/16/45. I thought so too until I attended a staff meeting in old Delta Building near the West end of the main tech area. The speaker was an Airforce officer who reported a couple of things that turned up in the air samples followeing the USSR event. This officer reported that the bomb was "composite" and not only was the ratio of the two fuels similar to the US Mark VI but that the ratios of the fission fragments were likewise. I have been frustrated for over 50 years because I wonder if I am the only one alive who even believes there was an AFOAT-TWO. Later the composite core was used in the US Mark-13 torpedo atom bomb. Any of you old-timers ever hear about AFOAT-TWO and its mission? Thanks, Galois |
Related Links
Did you know
Latest Posts
Military experiment seeks to predict PTSD post by 1CAVCCO15MED in General Posts on Nov 20, 2009 at 17:46:52
Tribute to a fallen comrade post by DMZ-LT in Vietnam on Nov 20, 2009 at 17:21:11
DOD Announces Military Commissions Actions post by darrels joy in Terrorism on Nov 20, 2009 at 17:16:52
Tribute to a fallen comrade post by formergrunt70 in Vietnam on Nov 20, 2009 at 16:03:22
Google's YouTube Hosts Taliban's Official Channel **Bumped** post by darrels joy in Enduring Freedom on Nov 20, 2009 at 14:18:53
This Day in History
1700:
Swedens 17 year old King Charles XII defeats the Russians at Narva.
1864: Nearly a week into the famous March to the Sea, the army of Union General William T. Sherman moves toward central Georgia, destroying property and routing small militia units it its path. 1943: One of the bloodiest battles in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps began. The 2nd Division landed on Tarawa, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands, on amphibious tractors with little armor. Despite heated debate about the execution of Tarawa, it was an undisputed victory. Almost the entire Japanese garrison, a total of 4,690 men, had been killed. 1945: Twenty-four high-ranking Nazis go on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II. The Nuremberg Trials were conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Great Britain. 1950: The 41 British Marine Independent Commando, with 14 officers and 221 other ranks, joined the U.S. 1st Marine Division at Hungnam. Forty-one Commando, which had earlier seen action at Kunsan as part of a diversionary raid in support of the Inchon Invasion, fought with distinction at Koto-ri and the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir. 1950: U.S. troops push to the Yalu River, within five miles of Manchuria. 1950: The 60th Indian Field Ambulance and Surgical Unit arrived at Pusan to join the U.N. forces in Korea. 1962: The blockade of Cuba lifted. 269: Diocletian is proclaimed emperor of Numerian in Asia Minor by his soldiers. He had been the commander of the emperors bodyguard. |
Comments