fo:
Distribution
“2=
December 27, 1956
J=15G=178
1)
4-5 surface shots larger than 2 MT
2)
6=7 surface shots between 0.2 and 2 MT
3)
w=8 “small” shots, surface and tower
4)
1 balloon-borne2 KT shot at 90,000 ft.
5)
110 KT shot at 150-ft. depth in Eniwetok lagoon
There is in addition some possibility of two more water shots and two
missile-delivered high-altitude shots.
In working out the concepts, I
suggest using items 1-5‘ above plus one missile-delivered shot of a megaton
range warhead burst at high altitude. This last may be regarded as a
reduced version of Sandia's "STARDUST" proposal.
In determining the locations of the zero points, it may be worthwhile
to recognize that the sponsorship of shots in items 1, 2, and 3 is approximately
evenly divided between LASL and UCRL.
Also, the Navy has indicated to AFSWP
that they favor the southwest section of Eniwetok lagoon for item 5. This
preference is based, however, on the idea that a deepwater shot 10 miles
outside the southwest reef will be included in HARDTACK and that some landbased instrumentation could then be convenient to both locations. Finally,
you may feel that shots larger than 2 M? should be fired at Eniwetok as
well as elsewhere; at about this level the air Task Group will begin to
fret ahout the safety of low perrormance aircraft on the ground at Eniwetok
Island.
The scope of the instrumentation to be connected with the above program
is somewhat more difficult to estimate.
It is probably correct to assume for
the most part that the instrumentation will resemble REDWING. There are,
however, a few known modifications. There does not appear to be any shot
‘dn items 1 and 2 requiring extensive instrumentation along the lines of
CASTLE Bravo or REDWING Zuni. AFSWP does not plan an area-wide fallout
program nor, at the moment, does AEC.
Apart from launching, radio track-
ing, and telemetering equipment, AFSWP will require no ground-based
instrumentation on the high altitude shots.
Furthermore, they do not
intend to fire auxiliary instrument-bearing missiles, but they do intend
to fly some instruments at 40,000 feet in two B-36 aircraft.
The Raydist
system will be replaced by a new manned system which will not require offatoll stations. There will, however, be some off-atoll microbarographic
stations.
There is not mich to go on but perhaps you will be able by making some
judicious assumptions to arrive at some estimates of where to locate the
shots, how much new construction will be needed, where and how large the
temporary and permanent camps should be, what will be needed in the way of
water and air support, what communications are necessary, in what order
the shots may or will have to be fired, etc.
s2eRPP
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