43, Operation KNOTHOLE (Nevada, Spring of 1953).
Department
of Defense
The
is considering holding some military effects
tests in the Spring of 1953 at the Nevada Proving Ground and have
assigned the code name KNOTHOLE to this possible operation.
Ha
Weapons for Military Maneuver Training
45, Provision of atomic. bombs to the Department of Defense for
operational maneuver training nas heretofore been effected through
the establishment of a pool of eighty non-nuclear weapon assemblies
in the eustody of the Department of Defense for this purpose.
The
atomic weapon delivery capability of the Department of Defense has
Since expanded to such an extent that the limited number of weapons
in the maneuver pool was inadequate to provide the training
required,
The Department of Defense recently proposed,
Atomic Energy Commission has approved,
and the
the use of non-nuclear
weapon assemblies in the stockpile for operational maneuver training
purposes, with the provisions that (a) any individual weapon
assembly will be used for no more than one maneuver assembly during
its stockpile life, and (b) the responsibility for security and
safeguarding of the weapons in the temporary custody of the
Department of Defense will be assumed by the Department.
Radiological Warfare
46. The Department of Defense is currently evaluating the
military worth of radiological warfare in the light of present
knowledge and with consideration for the expanding potential capacity to produce radiological warfare agents.
It is hoped that some
reasonably firm conclusions regarding the feasibility of radiological. warfare may be reached without the necessity for conducting
-~ 132 Wit) Ci FN
Melt
oir INIE, Ii
sy