Laydown delivery

Mark 39 Mod 2 thermonuclear weapon, as found by the explosive ordnance disposal team after the Goldsboro accident in 1961.

Laydown delivery is a mode of delivery found in some nuclear gravity bombs: the bomb's descent to the target is slowed by parachute so that it lands on the ground without detonating. The bomb then detonates by timer some time later.[1] Laydown delivery requires the weapon to be reinforced so that it can survive the force of impact.[2]

Laydown modes are used to make weapon delivery survivable by aircraft flying at low level.[3] Low-altitude delivery helps hide the aircraft from surface-to-air missiles.[4] The ground burst detonation of a laydown delivered weapon is used to increase the effect of the weapon's blast on built-up targets such as submarine pens, or to transmit a shock wave through the ground to attack deeply-buried targets. An attack of this type produces large amounts of radioactive fallout.

  1. ^ History of the Mk 28 Weapon (Report). Sandia National Laboratories. August 1968. p. 24. Archived from the original on 2021-07-07. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  2. ^ History of the Mk 28 Weapon, p. 24-25.
  3. ^ History of the Mk 28 Weapon, p. 24.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Empire was invoked but never defined (see the help page).