Backpack Nukes.

[Targan]

there was at least one Challenge magazine article with a backpack nuke that was going to be used in Iran - so there is a precedent for them being in the game

According to canon multiple demolition nukes were deployed by US Army engineers to destroy the transport hubs around Czestochowa when NATO forces withdrew from the city (1998 I think). But one of the rumour tables had a rumour that one of the demolition nukes hadn't detonated and may have been recovered. It was that backpack nuke that the PCs recovered from beneath the Jasna Gora in my last campaign and subsequently detonated on the outskirts of WarPac Reserve Front HQ in Lublin. The subsequent chaos among Soviet forces in Poland made Operation Omega somewhat more successful than it might otherwise have been.

For flavour, this photo is of a 6kt nuke being detonated.

[Ewan]

I think it had some stats: yield, timer, and weight. It also had the micro generator stats and other tidbits.

It was in Challenge No30 for the adventure Shell Game which give the 1st edition game stats for a Tactical Nuclear Device, Portable.

[Raellus]

My Rook's Gambit module prominently features a rogue American W45 Medium Atomic Demolition Munition- a tad larger in size and yield than the smaller, more infamous SADM (aka "backpack nuke"), but still in the same ballpark.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=4881

The premise is the MADM was smuggled into NE Poland by a special forces team immediately prior to the XI Corps summer offensive. The target was the Soviet Baltic Front HQ in Malbork, housed in the old Teutonic Knight's Crusader Castle of Marienberg. The team went missing and the device was never used. The adventure starts in the autumn of 2000- the MADM is in the hands of the paranoid Soviet Front commander, who believes that the upcoming operation OMEGA is actually a cover for a massive amphibious landing on the Baltic Coast between Gdansk and Elblag. He plans on using the captured MADM to attack the anchorage at Bremerhaven and stop this imagined invasion. It's up to the PCs to stop him.

-

[WallShadow]

The Thermobaric's "cousin" the Hyperbaric Munition uses a different method. It spreads reactive metal like Aluminum Oxide, Cesium & Aluminum, Lithium, or Magnesium into the blast radius. The dust ignites almost instantaneously, causing a huge overpressure blast but extinguishing almost as fast. More BANG, less BURN.y6756

Has anyone ever tried to use either Thermo- or Hyperbaric warheads to blow firebreaks or steal oxygen from forest fires If you could ensure the area below is evacuated, it would be a serious timesaver. And seeing how the warheads can be practically miniaturized, how about pods of FAE rockets or a magazine full of FAE 40mm grenades to shoot down a line of trees Or even more dramatic, blow down an escape route for encircled smokejumpers.

ISTR air dropped depth charges (with the fuse rigged on a long probe to only be activated at slightly above zero elevation) being used to clear jungle in WW2 and purpose-built BLU-82s, also with fuse extensiong for aboveground detonation, in Vietnam--the latter for expedient chopper LZs. Again, the only thing holding firefighters back from using this is keeping boots on the ground out of the blast radius.

[swaghauler]

Has anyone ever tried to use either Thermo- or Hyperbaric warheads to blow firebreaks or steal oxygen from forest fires If you could ensure the area below is evacuated, it would be a serious timesaver. And seeing how the warheads can be practically miniaturized, how about pods of FAE rockets or a magazine full of FAE 40mm grenades to shoot down a line of trees Or even more dramatic, blow down an escape route for encircled smokejumpers.

ISTR air dropped depth charges (with the fuse rigged on a long probe to only be activated at slightly above zero elevation) being used to clear jungle in WW2 and purpose-built BLU-82s, also with fuse extensiong for aboveground detonation, in Vietnam--the latter for expedient chopper LZs. Again, the only thing holding firefighters back from using this is keeping boots on the ground out of the blast radius.

Thermobarics would be out because of the incendiary component in them. Hyperbarics would cost too much. That's why Primer Cord and its slightly more powerful cousin Detcord are used for those applications.

[LT. Ox]

Yep

Thermobarics would be out because of the incendiary component in them. Hyperbarics would cost too much. That's why Primer Cord and its slightly more powerful cousin Detcord are used for those applications.

With great effect I might add.
I was told (hearsay) that detcord wrapped around POW's necks was an effective way to reduce the number of guards needed.
Now I am telling you this is second hand 'cause it was strictly agin sop.
Yep totally just heard it.
some where.
once

[WallShadow]

With great effect I might add.
I was told (hearsay) that detcord wrapped around POW's necks was an effective way to reduce the number of guards needed.
Now I am telling you this is second hand 'cause it was strictly agin sop.
Yep totally just heard it.
some where.
once

One long piece connecting several POWs, I would guess. Peer pressure will keep a loose cannon from getting too loose.

[pmulcahy11b]

According to canon multiple demolition nukes were deployed by US Army engineers to destroy the transport hubs around Czestochowa when NATO forces withdrew from the city (1998 I think). But one of the rumour tables had a rumour that one of the demolition nukes hadn't detonated and may have been recovered. It was that backpack nuke that the PCs recovered from beneath the Jasna Gora in my last campaign and subsequently detonated on the outskirts of WarPac Reserve Front HQ in Lublin. The subsequent chaos among Soviet forces in Poland made Operation Omega somewhat more successful than it might otherwise have been.

For flavour, this photo is of a 6kt nuke being detonated.

One big target for NATO "backpack" nukes was to be dams.