DOMINIC Fireballs, Pacific Testing, 1962, Christmas Island Area

DTRA's history begins with the Manhattan Project, which then split into the Atomic Energy Commission and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project after WWII. The AFSWP became the Defense Atomic Support Agency in 1959; DASA became the Defense Nuclear Agency in 1971; DNA became the Defense Special Weapons Agency in 1996, and was one of the four agencies/programs that combined in 1998 to form the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. This film (Silent, Long distance aerial views only) covers sixteen of the Operation Dominic spectacular airdrop nuclear bursts that were detonated near Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean. These weapons-related devices were dropped from B-52’s staged out of Hawaii from April 27 to July 11, 1962. After the Soviet Union resumed atmospheric testing in violation of a treaty with the United States, President Kennedy authorized the U.S. to resume atmospheric testing on March 2, 1962.

The video, comprised of small rolls of film that had never been released, shows the fireballs of 16 nuclear devices being fired off the southern end of Christmas Island, which had been used earlier by the British for nuclear testing. The United States was striving to increase the yield-to-weight ratio of weapons so they could be delivered by existing aircraft.

The tests shown from the 1962 Operation Dominic were as follows:

AZTEC, April 27, 410 kilotons (kt)
QUESTA, May 4, 670 kt
YUKON, May 8, 100 kt
MESILLA, May 9, 100 kt
ENCINO, May 12, 500 kt
SWANEE, May 14, 97 kt
YESO, June 10, 3 megatons (Mt)
HARLEM, June 12, 1.2 Mt
RINCONADA, June 15, 800 kt
DULCE, June 17, 52 kt
PETIT, June 19, 2.2 kt
OTOWI, June 22, 81.5 kt
BIGHORN, June 27, 7.65 Mt
BLUESTONE, June 30, 1.27 Mt
SUNSET, July 10, 1 Mt
PAMLICO, July 11, 3.88 Mt

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