Atomic Demolition Munition — The Horrifying Nuclear Landmine
Landmines are awful enough without being atomic
The Cold War saw military planners and engineers stuff a nuclear warhead into almost everything. There were nuclear artillery shells, nuclear torpedoes, nuclear bombs, nuclear missiles, nuclear grenade launchers, and more. Tactical nuclear weapons were seen as a way out of fielding massive, expensive armies in Europe. Why field 30 divisions when you can simply annihilate the enemy army with nuclear Howitzers?
Military engineers even developed nuclear landmines. Nuclear landmines were known as atomic demolition munitions (ADM), and they were developed in various flavors, including civilian ones.
Nuclear landmines were different from other types of nuclear weapons because they had no delivery system. Instead, they had to be manually buried by hand and then armed to blow. Most nuclear landmines were either armed via live wire that was run to a nearby bunker, or they were set on a timer to donate after a specific amount of time.
Atomic landmines featured some of the smallest and lightest nuclear warheads ever developed and used by the United States military. Some of the smallest nukes measured just 16 x 24 inches and weighed 50 lbs, making them carryable via backpack.
