Broken Arrow (code word)

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Broken Arrow is a term from the terminology of the US military and is understood throughout NATO . Broken Arrow refers to an accident involving a nuclear warhead in which the warhead poses a danger to the public (accidental ignition), or the accidental loss or theft of such a device. In the event of a broken arrow - including accidents involving French or British nuclear weapons - on German soil, the US military has extensive special rights based on intergovernmental agreements.

An official US list describes 32 official accidents. An unofficial list speaks of over 1000.

1950s

In 1950, during the Korean War , such an event took place at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield , Solano County , California , which at the time was still called Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base. A Boeing B-29 had engine problems shortly after take-off and returned to Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base with a Mark IV atomic bomb on board by order of General Robert F. Travis on board. The flaps failed. The 5,000 pound conventional explosive detonated, killing 7 people. Of the 20 crew members aboard the B-29 bomber, 12 died, including General Travis, after whom Travis Air Force Base was named in 1951.

1960s

During the Vietnam War in 1965, desperate infantry units used the code word Broken Arrow to request an air strike on their own position at the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley .

1980s

On September 18, 1980 there was an explosion in a missile silo near Damascus, Arkansas and the warhead was lost. The warhead was found and recovered by the Air Force a few days later. There was one dead.

Related terms

literature

  • Broken Arrow. In: Benjamin C. Garrett, John Hart: The A to Z of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare. Scarecrow Press, 2009, p. 41. ISBN 978-0-810-87040-6 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  • broken arrow. In: Jonathon Green: The A-Z of Nuclear Jargon. Routledge, 2014. ISBN 978-1-317-90824-1 , p. 27. ( limited preview in Google book search)
  • Eric Croddy, James J. Wirtz (Eds.): Broken Arrow / Bent Spear ; in: Weapons of Mass Destruction: Chemical and biological weapons. ABC-CLIO , 2005, p. 42 f. ISBN 978-1-851-09490-5 ( limited preview in Google Book Search)
  • Norman Leach: Broken Arrow: America's First Lost Nuclear Weapon. Red Deer Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-889-95348-2
  • James C. Oskins, Michael H. Maggelet: Broken Arrow: The Declassified History of US Nuclear Weapons Accidents. Lulu.com, 2008. ISBN 978-1-435-70361-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Broken Arrows: How Many Nuclear Accidents Have We Had? | American Experience | PBS. Retrieved July 21, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ 1,000 More Accidents Declassified. January 28, 2001, accessed July 21, 2020 .
  3. ↑ 5 times we almost nuked ourselves by accident
  4. ^ Broken Arrow Nuclear Weapon Accidents , www.aerospaceweb.org
  5. ^ LZ X-ray, Day 2 (15 Nov 1965) , military.com
  6. ↑ Command and control: nuclear weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the illusion of safety: Schlosser, Eric: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. Retrieved July 21, 2020 (English).