Charlie

Operation Buster-Jangle

October 30, 1951 · Nevada Test Site (NTS) · Airdrop · 14 kt

A nuclear device dropped from an aircraft and exploded in the atmosphere.

Color photograph of the mushroom cloud of Shot Charlie, third nuclear detonation of Operation Buster-Jangle, B-50 airdrop at 345 metres, Area 7, Nevada Proving Ground, 30 October 1951. Mk-4 composite core device PC, 14 kt. U.S. Army Signal Corps photograph, Signal Corps File No. C-7045.
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U.S. Army Signal Corps

Printed in 1951

Color print: Ansco safety paper

8x10 in (20.3x25.4 cm)

Serial number, Stamp

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U.S. Army

Printed in 1951

Dye transfer

11x14 in (27.9x35.6 cm)

Mounted, Stamp

Shot Easy, Operation Buster-Jangle — air-dropped detonation [burst height to confirm], Nevada Proving Ground (Yucca Flat), 5 November 1951; yield 31 kilotonnes.
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US Air Force

Printed in 1953

Silver gelatin print

8x10 in (20.3x25.4 cm)

Stamp

Shot Charlie was the third nuclear detonation of Operation Buster-Jangle, dropped by a B-50 bomber on 30 October 1951 from approximately 345 metres above Area 7 of the Nevada Proving Ground. The device — designated PC — was a Mk-4 bomb assembly using a composite uranium-plutonium core, producing 14 kilotons within its predicted range of 12–15 kt. Operation Buster-Jangle marked the first time the Department of Defense and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory conducted a joint test series on US soil. The Buster component was a weapons development programme, testing various pit configurations in the Mk-4 assembly and proof-firing the TX-7E design that led directly to the Mk-7 lightweight tactical bomb. The Jangle component evaluated nuclear cratering using ground-level and subsurface bursts. Approximately 7,800 DOD personnel participated in total, 6,500 of them troops who conducted field exercises in conjunction with the detonations — the first such nuclear combat environment exercises ever held in the United States. These were designated Desert Rock I, II, and III.