Today I Learned [TIL] - The largest stockpile of ACTIVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS is less than 20 MILES FROM SEATTLE and guarded by dolphins...
The Naval Submarine Base in Bangor, WA - is across the body of water called the Puget Sound on the Olympic peninsula. It feels like it's 2 hours away, but by boat or air, it's less than 20 miles from downtown Seattle.
Nearly one-quarter of America’s 9,962 nuclear weapons are now assigned to the Bangor submarine base on Hood Canal, 20 air miles northwest of downtown Seattle. -source
The stockpile (as of 10 years ago) included:
- 1,100 W76 warheads on Trident IIs
- 850 W76s on Trident I C4s
- 246 W88 on Trident IIs
- 150 W80-0s
Of course, even the largest megaton devices still won't have the range to reach Seattle. I'm not sure what happens though if multiple thousands of warheads go off at once. I myself live just northeast of Seattle, I'd like to think that I'd have time to book it over the mountains if something happened.
The Dolphins
The Navy Marine Mammal Program is part of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (or SPAWAR). The program runs at $14M a year, based mainly out of San Diego, but used for defense for many Naval installations.
Dolphins disable enemy divers by tracking them down and spearing them with needle full of compressed gas. The injected gas expands inside the enemy's body, creating an embolism. This is very fatal. They are also used for detecting and disabling marine mines, and can plant explosives on enemy vessels.
Interesting post upvoted and followed
Thanks Tarzan!
I still think the Russians were kool there largest weapons were TEN MEGATONs !!!
The idea was simple ; it did not matter if you hit what you were shooting at , it did not matter how well hardened it was ...
The net after effect was always going to be the same ; GAME OVER ! ! !
Gees the Aliens would have loved to have seen World War THREE Nuclear Armageddon ; )
So kool : )
Do you have a source on the dolphin thing? I searched a bit on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists site, and only found this interview, which mentions Dolphins as a class of nuclear submarine.
http://thebulletin.org/interview-paul-bracken-american-nuclear-forces-21st-century7855
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-largest-stockpile-of-nuclear-weapons-is-defended-by-dolphins-2015-3