Operation Dominic was a series of 31

nuclear test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to signal strength. Bec ...

explosions ("shots") with a total yield conducted in 1962 by the United States in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

. This test series was scheduled quickly, in order to respond in kind to the Soviet resumption of testing after the tacit 1958–1961 test moratorium. Most of these shots were conducted with free fall bombs dropped from

B-52 The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Ai ...

bomber aircraft. Twenty of these shots were to test new weapons designs; six to test weapons effects; and several shots to confirm the reliability of existing weapons. The

Thor missile The PGM-17A Thor was the first operative ballistic missile of the United States Air Force (USAF). It was named after the Norse god of thunder. It was deployed in the United Kingdom between 1959 and September 1963 as an intermediate-range ballis ...

was also used to lift warheads into near-space to conduct

high-altitude nuclear explosion High-altitude nuclear explosions are the result of nuclear weapons testing within the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere and in outer space. Several such tests were performed at high altitudes by the United States and the Soviet Union betw ...

tests; these shots were collectively called

Operation Fishbowl Operation Fishbowl was a series of high-altitude nuclear explosion, high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962 that were carried out by the United States as a part of the larger Operation Dominic I and II, Operation Dominic nuclear test program. In ...

. Operation Dominic occurred during a period of high

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

tension between the United States and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, since the Cuban

Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called or after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States of America and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front ...

had occurred not long before.

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

announced the end of a three-year moratorium on nuclear testing on 30 August 1961, and Soviet tests recommenced on 1 September, initiating a series of tests that included the detonation of the

Tsar Bomba The Tsar Bomba (code name: ''Ivan'' or ''Vanya''), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear aerial bomb, and by far the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. The Soviet phy ...

. President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

responded by authorizing ''Operation Dominic''. It was the last atmospheric test series conducted by the U.S., as the

Limited Test Ban Treaty The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), formally known as the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons except for those conducted underground. It ...

was signed in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

the following year. The operation was undertaken by Joint Task Force 8. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) performed Operation DOMINIC II, an atmospheric nuclear test series, at the

Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Sites (N2S2 or NNSS), popularized as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a reservation of the United States Department of Energy located in the southeastern portion of Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of ...

(NTS) from July 7 to 17, 1962. The test series included four low-yield shots, three of which were near-surface detonations and one a tower shot. Exercise IVY FLATS included one of the near-surface shots, fired from a ''DAVY CROCKETT'' rocket launcher.Operation DOMINIC II Fact Sheet

Defense Threat Reduction Agency The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is both a defense agency and a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear ...

Shots

Sunset

The shot report lists the yield as ±20% measured from a

bhangmeter A bhangmeter is a non-imaging radiometer installed on reconnaissance and navigation satellites to detect atmospheric nuclear detonations and determine the yield of the nuclear weapon. They are also installed on some armored fighting vehicles, i ...

and ±10% from fireball analysis. Other sources give the yield as .

Full list of shots

Gallery

File:DominicHousatonic.gif, Dominic-''Housatonic'', 9.96 megatons. File:DominicHousatonic2.gif, Dominic-''Housatonic''. File:DominicMuskegon.gif, Dominic-''Muskegon'', 50 kilotons. File:DominicSunset.gif, Dominic-''Sunset'', 1 megaton. File:DominicYukon.gif, Dominic-''Yukon'', 100 kilotons. File:DominicArkansas.gif, Dominic-''Arkansas'', 1.1 megatons. File:DominicCharma.gif, Dominic-''Chama'', 1.6 megatons. File:DominicAsrockSwordfish.gif, Dominic-''Swordfish'', <20 kilotons. File:Nuclear depth charge explodes near USS Agerholm (DD-826) on 11 May 1962.jpg, ''Swordfish'' spray dome and plume with USS Agerholm in foreground. Full scale test of ASROC rocket launched depth charge. File:DominicFrigateBirdPolaris.gif, Dominic-''Frigate Bird'' via

UGM-27 Polaris The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980. In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missi ...

missile, 600 kilotons; Only full-scale US test of a strategic missile system. File:Operation_Dominic_-_Frigate_Bird_nuclear_explosion.jpg, Dominic-''Frigate Bird'', as viewed from the submarine USS Carbonero. File:Project 26 - Operation Dominic (Johnston Island; Christmas Island; Maui, Hawaii) Detonation.jpg, Dominic-''Truckee'', 210 kilotons.

References

External links

Joint Task Force 8 video report on Operation Dominic

at Carey Sublette's NuclearWeaponArchive.org
More info on U.S. testing
*
Operation Dominic
at RECA UK (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act)
Operation DOMINIC I Fact Sheet

{{US Nuclear Tests Explosions in 1962

Dominic Dominic, Dominik or Dominick is a male given name common among Roman Catholics and other Latin-Romans. Originally from the late Roman-Italic name "Dominicus", its translation means "Lordly", "Belonging to God" or "of the Master". The most promi ...

Exoatmospheric nuclear weapons testing Johnston Atoll American nuclear explosive tests Kiritimati 1962 in military history 1962 in Oceania 1962 in the environment

Military projects of the United States