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DOE OSTI · 1839345

Operation Tumbler-Snapper

Meade, Roger Allen
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Abstract

Operation Tumbler-Snapper began on April 1, 1952, when Able, a low-yield nuclear device, detonated 793 feet over the Frenchman Flat area of the Nevada Proving Ground. Able, the first of four airdrops conducted as the Tumbler phase of the Operation, provided the Department of Defense with reliable data on the relationship between height of burst and blast overpressure. Such information was vital to establishing the battlefield use of nuclear weapons. A final set of four tower detonations, the Snapper phase, provided the AEC and Los Alamos with diagnostic data on new weapon designs. Although the test series was nominally divided between the AEC and the DOD, this distinction held little meaning because two of the Tumbler effects tests, Charlie and Dog, employed experimental devices and all four of the Snapper tests involved effects experiments, including military troop maneuvers.

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Meade, Roger Allen. 2022-01-05. Operation Tumbler-Snapper. https://doi.org/10.2172/1839345

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