M65 Atomic Cannon

I was personally more astounded when I first discovered the Davy Crockett nuclear warhead recoilless rifle:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_devic...</a><p>When I told my dad (who grew up in the Cold War) about the weapon, he said &quot;Oh yeah, I had the toy model version.&quot;<p>I&#x27;m often astonished any civilizations survived the Cold War.

If you are driving across Kansas on I-70 you can take a stop in Junction City at Freedom Park. It is right at the exit on the south side. A short climb up the hill past some other artillery gets you to the M65. It’s more or less targeting Salina which is a 20 minute drive down the interstate.<p>You can get right up to it. And it hurled nuclear warheads a 20 minute drive down the interstate.<p>Now that I double check the satellite photos, it isn’t so much aimed at Salina as Hope, which seems fitting.

I found this footage of the first Chinese nuclear test astounding when it was posted on YouTube 13 years ago:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=9xoHbBkUGSQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=9xoHbBkUGSQ</a>

Growing up in Germany it was weird to think if these weapons or similar ones were ever used it would probably mean that Germany and probably parts of Europe would be destroyed. Pretty scary.

As always, the problem with antiquated arms is: you can&#x27;t afford the ammunition.<p>What a cool machine, and a goofy concept by modern lights. I&#x27;d love to go look at how that&#x27;s actually built.

Heh, I was just reading up on this yesterday while doing some recreational research into atomic weapons testing in Nevada. Look on Google Maps here to see a thousand craters [0]. Turns out, they even give tours once a month [1].<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;@37.1496894,-116.0575635,3767m&#x2F;data=!3m1!1e3" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;@37.1496894,-116.0575635,3767m&#x2F;d...</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nnss.gov&#x2F;pages&#x2F;PublicAffairsOutreach&#x2F;NNSStours.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nnss.gov&#x2F;pages&#x2F;PublicAffairsOutreach&#x2F;NNSStours.h...</a>

Here is some good info about minimum payload (16kg) needed for fission<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nuclearweaponarchive.org&#x2F;Nwfaq&#x2F;Nfaq4-2.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nuclearweaponarchive.org&#x2F;Nwfaq&#x2F;Nfaq4-2.html</a>