In 1957, the sixth in a series of weapons tests took place at the Nevada test site. The Plumbbob tests consisted of thirty atomic detonations and was the peak of atmospheric testing at the Nevada Test Site. There were 21 laboratories and government agencies involved.
The explosions were to test new weapon designs and included 43 military effects tests on civil and military structures, radiation and bio-medical studies, and aircraft structural tests. The Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines continued the Desert Rock excercises, number VII and VIII with 13,300 personnel.
The earliest identified nuclear tests of devices corresponding to the W54 characteristics were the Pascal-A and Pascal-B test detonations in 1957, in the OperationPlumbob nuclear test series.
In Little Feller I (July 17), the warhead was launched as Davy Crockett device from a stationary 155 millimeter launcher and set to detonate between 20 and 40 feet above the ground around 1.7 miles from the launch point, with a yield of 18 tons.
Footage of Operation IVY FLATS was declassified by the United States Department of Energy on December 22, 1997.
Frigate Bird - on May 6, 1962, a UGM-27 Polaris A-1 missile with a live 600 kt W47 warhead was launched from the USS Ethan Allen (SSBN-608), it flew 1900 km, re-entered the atmosphere, and detonated at an altitude of 3.4 km over the South Pacific; part of Operation Dominic I.
Planned as a method to dispel doubts about whether the USA's nuclear missiles would actually function in practice, it had less effect than was hoped, as the stockpile warhead was substantially modified prior to testing, and the missile tested was a relatively low-flying SLBM and not a high-flying ICBM.
Both were part of Operation Hardtack and had a yield of 3.75 Mt
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