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A great amount o f technic al and operational data of bterwt tothe Air Force Waa obtained i n this operation. Wwks md nonths of mtudy m d Interpretation rfll be required however before final m8ult.a of t h e various tests can be validated. To us in the Air Force the e are five mc features that have evolved from Operation €iEWII~GG. They are, firat, that a new Class A weapon of light weight and high yield for our national stockpile appears quite feaaible. Secondly, during a we apo ~effeccts test We successfully proved out a m~rponssystsm inthe delivery by a B-52 of a weapon which 0 is scheduled t o enter stockpile aa them Thirdly, we proof-tested warheads that make the Class D weapon an assured fact. proven the warhead for our air-to-air missiles aa a result of the test. Lastly, a spectnun of warhead designs for.missiles waa tested, some of which apply t o several of our existing carriers. Fourthly, we have ks axa ~ ~ ~ l e sof the foregoing, I should like to elaborate aa folloxs: With reference to one, the Class ' d weipon; &I the dntOIIatiOM of the scientists believe dll lead the ueg t o producing a weapon yielding Referring t o two, before: the drop of t h em apon will be discussed a little bit later. Yith reference t o three, before; an example of a warhead that can most
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air-to-air rocket was dropped from a B-36 ina Mk-5 case from 16,000 Pt with a various missile applications i n which we are interest'&. For example, the Several warheads or devices can most probably be fitted into uld be made t o a megatons and was actually encased i n an existing missile vehicle. It is, i n size and vrieght, compatible with both the Matdor and Rascal. The mpossible t h a t a warhead can be made of this device if required. (Graphic air: Show the white painted 8-52 flying over and beyond t h e fireball. With animated picutre indicate a thermal pulse ntrildng t h e airc r a f t at burst time and a shock wave strildng aircraft several seconds later.) A program was designed t o test the struct u rsl responses of operational type aircraft to the blast gust and thermal radiation loads experinenced i n the vicinity of a nuclear o r thermnuclear detonation. From the information obtained i n these tests the nuclear weapons delivery cap abU ties of our present operational aircraft can be evaluated. The test results will indicate the optimu BS well as the ,admum yields that various a lr craft can safely deliver. The particular Air Force drcraft tested i n Operation REBWIIYG were t h e i n a; test array d i d not generally simulate an actual weapon drop. However, they were positioned t o receive loads from which weapon &livery data could be computed. The data obtained waa also used t o bvaluate theorstical information which had been caluclated predicting the aircraft responses t o Wea&@neffects. The individual aircraft positions The basic maneuver waa t o take up a flight path relative t o ground zero so as t o he in the correct position at brat and shock arrival t + ms.to pddeve the d
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While the objective of these projects wes tie collection of scientific data, the sef e ty of afr c revs was a consideration of’primary importense inthe conduct of RXVIIJG a irc rz ft tests. receive effects at o r near their design limit : , elaborete precautions were tS:en to in sure that the aircreft would be i n the right glace at the right time. I O Borne instances 2r zircrzft thet was only a few secozrls late wu ld heve ex2erience ul tim te or possibly even lethal loads. one-half times the design limit loads upon which the aircraft oo sitio ning criteria were based. A we--way gsten was utilized to abort late aircraft. I n t!iis w q the pilot or either of two ground control eystems could abort the late aircraft to asafe posttion. Since the test aircraft were positioned t o The ul tim te load i6 roughly one end The prsliminery data acquired by Effects Air h raft indicate .?xcellent results. We feel that tAs pro gem wes eminectly s ux ess ful.In addition to giving us sefety parameters for existing a irc ref t, the bta obtained shod3 be of frzat value in future aircraft design. Picture of a large nushroom wpe caoud with a B-57 enter in g( Gr qh ic did: the base of the cloud a t the in t exec tion of the base and the mushroos. Show mother 3-57. as the Pi rector, o:f et a distance with an esrow between the two indicating conrnqjication.) Our eerly penetration project was incl.uded to invest iBt e the fee sibi lit p of aircraft r,ecetrztin,- clouds fro = high yield atomic wee:ons at tia es shortly zircrews wodd be ex,osed fron the radioactive clou&. The eva lu tim of the ra a is tion effects of ezrly cloud pen bt rz tion i s of grect imjortance t c all tactical air comer.ders in planning their
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respective offensive or defensive combat mlssims. A px3mary example of a combat situation lnvolvjng cloud pet rations *nld ooolv a mccesrivs barbers directed intoM memy area would pass through clouds from ttm bmbs dmpped by preceding aircraft. As hdl u defemire situation mnld occur nhcn interceptors penetrated the cloud froma bomb dmpped by ah w tile &craft or the cloud froma defensive missile. To accomplish the early cloud penetration pragram f i v e &PB aircraft and 21 pllots from tactical Air C-nd yere amigned for part idp a tian in BEDWMG. The &57B was considered t o be lart desirable due to its aped and high altitude data could be accvmulatd withhrt subjecting a q individual to =eMiW ipet rations would have t o be made at times so early that the consematire operatima?. radiation dosage Wt of 3.9 r wuld have t o he exceeded in Surgeon herd of the Air Force, approved a dosage of 50 rod gaa for the so that no individual would receive more than 25 r. pmstrations no dosages were recorded mar 10 r. The sixteen extra pUots were required to in- t h a t oufficia& I It was do tem hid that to obtatn these data, however,! The Task Force, after Obtsinhg concurrence of the In almomt a l l instances, however, the ndssiom were plamed In the great majority of This project enabled ud t o evaluate the entire altitude spectrum betwen op rational aircraft. Furthennore, since the weapon field range lnvesUgated dum REDWING wss between one half and dghtmsgatons, it is in this altitude range or above t h a t significant portions of t h e main body of the cloud would nonually be founl. This is a very aigdlycant area for present day mal evaluations have not yet be m code ted. Preliminary results correlate very closely with results of early penetration data from low yield
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detonztlona i n previous tests. i t map be prs dlc ted that a hi& perfornance opera tio ad typo pircraft can fly through the cloud fron any veapon the design of which we now Pnow at ~9 alt it i lae of 4j.000 feet or less at time later thsn 10 mlnutes after detonztion, and the p i l o t would probz3ly ascumulate no more than 75 roentgens. These indications are verf favor e tls for Air Force operational s it mt ions, and we f ? e l that this project Z s accomplished a very important and successful On the basis of the prellminary data. however, During the oia rz tion tn ere were tWG drops fr ma irc rdt. By far the more sign if iw nt of the two was the drop of the Class C veapon on 21 &y. This I t wzs set to bust zt 4,300 feat and s o did, with a yield of a ? pox imt ely 3.5 megatofis. Due Co a,i ers on rd error,the 3oTb did not detonete on the a in ing 3oiF.t which caused 2 loss of sone &ita. The mcst E ign if i cant fe ctf ron