was discussed as to whether it should be 1 February or 15
February as Ogle
thought was more appropriate, the need for ships for shots
was discussed
(it was decided that 6 ships were still required, which would
be towed to
Mare Island where H&N would prepare a room
for the device and install
the radio equipment,
after which three would be towed to Pearl Harbo
r),
The problem of base surge from a high yield surfa
ce detonation was
discussed and 10 to 15 to 20 miles was felt to bea
safe distance for a ship
array,
a discussion of the problem of inadvertent surfa
ce detonation of
the devices and the resultant requirement for
a '"'safety-link" was discussed
and Ogle felt that since the probability of such
a problem was like one in 104
that he recommended that this be considered accep
table odds and that there
- be no requirement for such a safety-link.
Partly because such a link would
have a lesser reliability than the pure system
itself,
and numerous other
problems,
Documentation between BSD and AFSC and AFSWCon 27and 28December
addresses some planning being done by the Army (REDSTONEpeople) on
planned NIKE-ZEUS warhead testing to be conducted in the area of Kwajalein.
Aparently there are to be three separate ZEUS launches from Kwaj to place
BZ
in each case a nuclear burst at about 80, 000 feet altitude and ahead of a re-
entering Mark V RV.
The Air Force has apparently not been asked to
participate in this program at all at least in the area of nuclear testing personnel
and agencies.
Furthermore as for the Air Force nuclear test planning a current
AFSWC document proposes a three shot test series which would follow FISH BOWL
and would define the blast effects at three separate ranges on a re-entering
re-entry vehicle.