re: #105 ryannon

Hell, that’s not some of the scariest shit. The Air Force investigated nuclear-powered bombers and cruise missiles, before little things like the fact that operating them would mean belching out clouds of radioactive particles over population centers nixed further development. The cruise missile program, dubbed Project Pluto, even got up to ground-testing a functional prototype before it got the axe.

Though, I don’t think that even holds a candle to the way the Soviets went about nuclear power in their military. The Soviet Navy view of nuclear-powered subs was that it was nothing more than an upgrade, instead of a finicky and potentially dangerous power source for which the utmost care must be taken in utilizng it. They designed the most convoluted, dangerous reactor designs, crammed them into conventional subs, and then sent them to sea with engineers who had pretty much no functioning knowledge of how they were supposed to function. You have to pretty much be a genius in the US Navy to be considered for the nuke program, but the Soviets were taking conscript engineers and telling them “Watch this gauge. If it goes past here, hit this button. Otherwise, make sure not to get caught drunk while on watch.”