America’s Backpack Nuke
Many have heard of Little Boy and Fat Man, the nuclear weapons that were dropped on Japan in World War II, but not everyone has heard about the Littlest Boy. The bombs dropped then were designed for mass destruction, and the immense human toll has so far prevented nuclear weapons from being used in combat since then. Instead, the Littlest Boy was built for smaller-scale, recurring combat. It was a tiny but still deadly nuclear device that was crafted by the United States in the 1960s during the booming age of nuclear development and design.
During this nuclear arms race, the West was considering options for increasing its dominance on the ground in case of an armed conflict. Portable nukes became not only a theoretical solution, but were actually manufactured and trained with. “Littlest boy”, small and true to its name, marked a step in what could have been a chilling evolution of nuclear arms. This new weapon also went by the name of ‘Backpack Nuke,’ which is exactly what it sounds like. It was hoped that the Littlest Boy would be powerful enough to win a battle, but small enough to avoid international outcry…
Credit to : Dark Docs