WI: The Soviets Beat the US to the H-Bomb

asnys

The US detonated IVY MIKE, the first hydrogen bomb, in November of 1952. The Soviet Union detonated RDS-6, their first hydrogen bomb, in August of 1953, nine months later. That's close enough that maybe we can get the Soviets to test their hydrogen bomb before the US.

Delaying IVY MIKE is very possible. The initial design of the fission primary was reportedly botched, and would likely have pre-detonated and fizzled. This was apparently only noticed a week or two before the shot, and a new primary flown out at the last possible second. If the device fizzled, no detectable fusion would have taken place, but the test stand would have been destroyed, and it would probably take months to replace - the next US H-bomb test wasn't until the CASTLE series in 1954.

That's probably not enough by itself. But let's give the Soviets some good luck to match the US's bad luck, and say they fire RDS-6 in March 1953.

Now, on a strategic level, this doesn't make much difference. RDS-6 was a "Layer Cake"/"Alarmclock" design, not a "true" hydrogen bomb in the Teller-Ulam/"Third Idea" sense. But Sputnik was just a bleeping tin ball, and it shocked the world. So the United States' Sputnik moment comes six years earlier - before Joe McCarthy's peaked, in fact. What are the consequences?
 
NORGCO

NORGCO

Asnys said:
The US detonated IVY MIKE, the first hydrogen bomb, in November of 1952. The Soviet Union detonated RDS-6, their first hydrogen bomb, in August of 1953, nine months later. That's close enough that maybe we can get the Soviets to test their hydrogen bomb before the US.

Delaying IVY MIKE is very possible. The initial design of the fission primary was reportedly botched, and would likely have pre-detonated and fizzled. This was apparently only noticed a week or two before the shot, and a new primary flown out at the last possible second. If the device fizzled, no detectable fusion would have taken place, but the test stand would have been destroyed, and it would probably take months to replace - the next US H-bomb test wasn't until the CASTLE series in 1954.

That's probably not enough by itself. But let's give the Soviets some good luck to match the US's bad luck, and say they fire RDS-6 in March 1953.

Now, on a strategic level, this doesn't make much difference. RDS-6 was a "Layer Cake"/"Alarmclock" design, not a "true" hydrogen bomb in the Teller-Ulam/"Third Idea" sense. But Sputnik was just a bleeping tin ball, and it shocked the world. So the United States' Sputnik moment comes six years earlier - before Joe McCarthy's peaked, in fact. What are the consequences?
Click to expand...

The way I heard it is that the Soviets DID have the first H-bomb. Just not the first explosion of a thermonuclear device.

The story goes that the first American thermonuclear explosion was caused by an experimental installation - Mike 1 - that covered the entire island it was on, and could not have been moved in a workable condition in anything smaller than a cargo ship. No existing aircraft could possibly have moved it in a ready to detonate state. Also the theoretical principle used meant it could never be a mass produced weapon.

What the Soviets detonated was a bomb dropped from a standard bomber. The weapon used a different principle and could be produced in large numbers for the strategic forces.

It is a good story. Whether it is a good TRUE story is something I would like to have an answer to.

Does anybody have the details of this straight?
 

asnys

NORGCO said:
The way I heard it is that the Soviets DID have the first H-bomb. Just not the first explosion of a thermonuclear device.

The story goes that the first American thermonuclear explosion was caused by an experimental installation - Mike 1 - that covered the entire island it was on, and could not have been moved in a workable condition in anything smaller than a cargo ship. No existing aircraft could possibly have moved it in a ready to detonate state. Also the theoretical principle used meant it could never be a mass produced weapon.

What the Soviets detonated was a bomb dropped from a standard bomber. The weapon used a different principle and could be produced in large numbers for the strategic forces.

It is a good story. Whether it is a good TRUE story is something I would like to have an answer to.

Does anybody have the details of this straight?
Click to expand...

It basically comes down to your definitions. The IVY MIKE design didn't actually cover the entire island; it was "only" eighty tons. It was actually very briefly turned into a functioning weapon - it weighed twenty tons and was only in service for a few months, before it was replaced with dry fuel designs. It was really not a useful weapons system. But it was operationalized.

The RDS-6 tested by the Soviets was a working and useful weapons system, but it was based on the Alarm Clock approach, rather then the Teller-Ulam approach. As a practical matter, it wasn't really a significant advance over previously existing fission weapons. If we count it as an H-bomb, we have to ask why fusion-boosted fission weapons don't count, and they were already in service by then.
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

Asnys said:
It basically comes down to your definitions. The IVY MIKE design didn't actually cover the entire island; it was "only" eighty tons. It was actually very briefly turned into a functioning weapon - it weighed twenty tons and was only in service for a few months, before it was replaced with dry fuel designs. It was really not a useful weapons system. But it was operationalized.

The RDS-6 tested by the Soviets was a working and useful weapons system, but it was based on the Alarm Clock approach, rather then the Teller-Ulam approach. As a practical matter, it wasn't really a significant advance over previously existing fission weapons. If we count it as an H-bomb, we have to ask why fusion-boosted fission weapons don't count, and they were already in service by then.
Click to expand...

What fusion-boosted weapons were already in service?
 
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