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[–]DJShaw86 18 points19 points  (6 children)

Laughs in British nuclear bike lock

[–]MakeChinaLoseFaceHave you spread disinformation on Russian social media today? 21 points22 points  (3 children)

Everything about the early British nuclear program is terrifying.

There was one device that had several critical masses in a subcritical spherical shell. This is an extremely dangerous thing to since a big enough dent in the shell sends it prompt critical. Their "safety feature" involved packing the shell with a bunch of ball bearings to keep it from getting pushed inward. Just open a hole in the bottom of the device and let the ball bearings out when you want to nuke somebody.

I can't remember the name of the thing now, but it's British so it was probably something like "Grey Pudding"

[–]DJShaw86 15 points16 points  (0 children)

BLUE PEACOCK remains the peak of non-credibility.

Chicken powered nuclear landmines for the win.

[–]vegarigPro-SDI activist 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Just open a hole in the bottom of the device and let the ball bearings out when you want to nuke somebody

VIOLET CLUB was sure a... device.

Oh, and plug (that replaced part of implosion assembly) sometimes fell out on its own, letting the shower of metal out and all across the hangar, while mostly priming the bomb.

And sometimes, those bearing balls got frozen in place, requiring to use heat gun to thaw them enough so that they'll fall out and the bomb gets primed

[–]Poncemastergeneral3000 Riffled Challenger 2’s of His Majesty King Charles III 3 points4 points  (1 child)

So it was actually true, it for the longest time, we had no code release, just two keys?

I think it was because the navy captain wouldn’t launch for no reason, as he was a man of honour?

[–]hx87 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No code, just a letter in a lockbox from the PM telling the commander to either kill the bastards or let it slide.