Inert nuclear missile found in US man's garage

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 133 points –
Inert nuclear missile found in US man's garage
bbc.com
40

Seems weird to call it an "inert nuclear missile" when the entire payload component with the "nuclear" trait was not included.

For any TL;DR folks: it was just the rocket without the warhead. Basically an empty fuel tank with a nozzle.

Inert nuclear missile aimed at america

FBI SLAMS LOCAL HOMEGROWN TERRORIST FOR TRYING TO KILL 1000'S OF CHILDREN IN FIREY NUCLEAR BLAZE

The next headline

told BBC News on Friday that the device was "just basically a gas tank for rocket fuel". He called the event "not serious at all". "In fact, our bomb squad member asked me why we were releasing a news release on a rusted piece of metal," he said.

Saved you a click

Peak journalism. Thats like a 50% made up story.

I don't blame the museum for calling the bomb squad. The fuel they put in those things is some real nasty toxic shit that if there were any trace left would be problematic. The whole "nuclear" part is the media being intentionally clickbaity.

Love my scrap metal with a nice healthy layer of hydrazine.

Isnt the whole point that the fuels self combust so exposing it to air should make it all decompose right?

This has to be one of the craziest weapons ever made. An unguided, nuclear, air-to-air rocket.

For when you've got really bad aim

Well tbf, you don't need great aim when you can vaporize everything within several hundred meters.

Sure, but no plane within about 2km is going to stay in the sky….

The em pulse, the shockwave, the heat….

Aim is for handguns, this thing might take yourself out if you’re not careful.

The Davy Crockett Weapon System would like to have a word.

Project Pluto has a few words as well. Well, mostly just the one word, but it screams it repeatedly.

Continuously to be technical, since it's a ramjet.

I was referring to the extra nukes it drops along the way, but yeah the nuclear ramjet also causes devastation all the way along the flight path

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Tin foil hat engaged: This is exactly the news story I'd have the papers run if it'd had a warhead and too many people were aware of the missile's existence for convenient disappearances to be an option. Make it safe, spin a story to reassure the public, breathe a sigh of relief that it didn't turn out differently.

Then get back to guarding the secret prison facility holding the aliens who shot JFK.

Surprising he still wants to donate it to the museum after they grassed him up.

What else is he gonna do with it? I doubt there's a ebay category for "nuclear warhead delivery systems". The best he might do is get someone to haul it away for scrap metal.

Keep it, or donate it somewhere else.

He might have a new preferred method of delivery though. Think of it as an express shipping option with an unmistakable delivery notification.