The Nightmarish Nuclear Powered Doomsday Missile

Video Description

Imagine a missile the size of a railroad locomotive, travelling at treetop level at three times the speed of sound. It can’t be detected in advance, it can’t be shot down. Its superheated shockwave breaks windows and scorches the earth along its path, while radioactive fallout spewing from its nuclear engine turns whatever is left into an irradiated wasteland. And when the hellish weapon finally reaches its destination, it unleashes a payload of twenty-six 10-megaton thermonuclear warheads - more than 5,000 times the explosive power of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While this nightmarish scenario sounds like something straight out of science fiction, in the early 1960s it came terrifyingly close to becoming a reality - and pushing humanity closer to the brink of Armageddon. This is the forgotten story of SLAM, America’s Cold War nuclear-powered doomsday missile. Author: Gilles Messier Editor: Daven Hiskey Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Samuel Avila