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The Time The US Nuked the Ocean: Revisiting Operation Wigwam
The only test of a deep sea nuclear depth charge and its fallout
Between 1945 and 1962, the United States conducted dozens of nuclear weapons tests. The tests served a number of purposes, including the development of new weapons and nuclear policies aimed at containing the rising nuclear threat of the Soviet Union. Most people are familiar with the tests that took place in the deserts of the American Southwest and the famous tests conducted at remote Pacific atolls, but there were other, stranger tests that have been largely forgotten.
One such test was Operation Wigwam, which sought to document the power of a nuclear weapon’s undersea potential. The United States was attempting to develop effective nuclear mines that could be dropped in areas vulnerable to incursions by Soviet submarines. The idea was to hide these mines and detonate them in the case of the presence of hostile nuclear submarines. If the nuclear mines could sink enemy subs in a wide enough area, they could be used as an effective shield for the mainland United States.
As technology continued to advance after World War II, sluggish bombers towing bulbous nuclear weapons became less of a threat compared to new intercontinental ballistic missiles and missile-capable submarines. As a…
