impact with the ground, detonating a ring of high explosive surrounding a hollow sphere precisely machined from eight pounds of South African plutonium, together composing the bomb's round primary stage. Though only one-fifth the diameter of 'Far Man,' this arrangement of perfect geometry and rare matter differed little from the architecture of the twenty-kiloton bomb that flattened Nagasaki half a century before. That weapon had missed by a mile. This thermonuclear device, with twenty times the yield, would land within 600 feet of its aiming point fifty percent of the time.
Bennett remembered that during his retirement ceremony at Miramar, somebody had asked him the inevitable question: What did he most enjoy about the Navy? And he had given the usual answer-the people. It was a cliche, but it was true.
Certainly the hardware had been a big factor. Nobody was more devoted to the F-8 than Bennett had been, and in the past few years the Tigershark had become the icon of his soul. But sharing a life in the air with other men of similar motivation had been the genuine reward: Dave Edmonds, Ed Lawrence, Masher Malloy, and so many more.
There had been others, of course. Bennett thought of Elizabeth and how he missed her those long years after the drunk driver took her from him. He thought with satisfaction that he had provided for Paul's future, and the future of little Angelina, whom he would never hold again.
And he thought of Claudia.
The impact-initiated detonation command passed through a series of stolen American timing switches and ignited forty pounds of plastic-bonded PBX 9404 high explosive in 32 places. The detonation wave raced through the HE lenses at 29,300 feet per second and interacted with embedded lenses of slightly slower-burning explosive, turning from convex to concave to match the curvature of the surrounded plutonium ball.
After ignition the high explosive burned concentrically, imploding the subcritical sphere of South African Pu- 239 inward upon itself, symmetrically crushing the seven-inch ball to the size of a small fist. Nanoseconds-billionths of a second-after the mass of fuel went supercritical, a stream of neutrons shot into the plutonium ball to initiate the rapid chain-reaction that is nuclear fission. The freed neutrons then fissioned other nuclei to produce more neutrons and more energy. Billions of plutonium nuclei were split in half a microsecond, unleashing the energy that bound together their 94 protons and 145 neutrons-energy equal to nearly forty kilotons.
X-rays from the fission trigger reaction super-heated the plastic foam surrounding the cylindrical secondary stage into a plasma momentarily denser than lead. The process fused twelve pounds of lithium deuteride into helium, releasing some 200 kilotons-the power of 200,000 tons of TNT-and billions of fast neutrons. These high- speed particles were absorbed by a sixty-pound mantel of U-235 around the core of lithium deuteride, producing over 160 kilotons more of explosive energy from the fission of billions of uranium nuclei. The 400 kilotons generated by this fission-fusion-fission bomb theoretically could be produced with one-third as much nuclear fuel. But the assembly was blown apart before all the fuel was used.
Bennett's thoughts turned to Tiger Force. He wondered whether the IPs would hold reunions in later years. He hoped so, for reasons at once egotistical and sentimental. As long as Tiger Force was remembered,
Then, thinking of his best pupil the way any good teacher would, John Bennett died.
First came the light-visible, ultraviolet, and gamma rays. Microseconds later came the heat, infrared radiation from the fireball caused when air absorbs such energy. X-rays emitted by this explosive release were absorbed within a microsecond-a millionth of one second-by the dry, hot air, creating livid pinkish-orange fireball with hints of yellow-green. Temperatures inside the fireball-a little sun blooming on the desert floor-reached 30 million degrees or more. It rose as it expanded, like a mile-wide hot-air balloon, changing to reddish then, within a minute, becoming too cool to be seen: Around the fireball formed a blast wave of compressed air that raged from the fireball at thousands of feet per second.
Two thousand feet from ground zero, this moving wall of air struck objects with 190 pounds per square inch of pressure over the normal atmospheric pressure of 15 pounds at sea level. At that distance, the rapidly-rising mushroom cloud of radioactive soil and weapons debris generated winds of 2,000 miles per hour. Even an earthquake-proof structure of reinforced concrete can be flattened by only 30 pounds per square inch of overpressure.
Within the fireball, all matter was ionized. Before lifting away from the ground, the fireball scooped out a 150-foot deep crater in the dry earth of Arabia Deserta, 700 feet across. Ground shock cracked the base of both runways and the blast wave swept away all above-ground structures, vehicles, aircraft, and crews.
The surging, roiling mushroom cloud spread out along the tropopause at 45,000 feet, carrying glass-like radioactive beads and human aspirations several miles downwind.
Avrim Ran stepped to the rostrum to address the United Nations General Assembly. This time no delegates walked out.
'Last night, the Israeli Air Force launched six special missions against selected targets in Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Five of these targets were destroyed. Two of our aircraft did not return.'
Avrim Ran carried in his pocket the telex from Tel Aviv.
Lieutenant Colonel David Ran was missing in action. But the ambassador continued reading his prepared speech in a flat, emotionless voice.
'We call upon the Arab states to withdraw from Israeli territory.
We propose a seventy-two hour cease-fire in order to disengage the combatant forces, after which time the government of Israel is willing to participate in negotiations to designate the West Bank of the Jordan as a Palestinian homeland.' He paused for emphasis. 'Should this opportunity pass, then the Israeli armed forces will continue to employ nuclear weapons, including on our own soil if necessary.'
Ambassador Ran folded his paper and walked from the stage. Not a word was exchanged, but he looked the Soviet ambassador square in the face as he passed.
The military attaches in Washington were abuzz with rumor and speculation. Everyone expressed surprise at Ran's disclosure; it was unlike the Israelis to admit any of their planes had failed to reach its target and another never made it home. But there were a few who knew something else. The wreckage of two Mirages shot down over Arab-occupied territory had been closely examined. The aircraft were found to be repainted over the original South African colors. This led to speculation that Pretoria may have provided some of its own rumored nukes to Israel. There was limited knowledge that the
Thus, although Israel had expended some of her own atomic arsenal, she might have an undetermined number of additional bombs. Naturally, Tel Aviv did nothing to refute that speculation.
NEW YORK — In a rare gesture, the United States abstained today in a United Nations Security Council vote, allowing to pass a Soviet and Arab-sponsored resolution condemning Israel for use of nuclear weapons two days ago.
However, diplomatic sources indicated that the unusually strongly worded resolution-which carries no force of action-may have been part of a compromise package leading to disengagement of the warring nations. Those sources said that American and Soviet leaders were 'terrified' of the prospects for a wider nuclear conflict. Earlier reports of Russian commitments to radical Muslim regimes for a Soviet nuclear umbrella could not be confirmed, but some Arab delegates stated in private that Moscow's military promises had not been kept 'in full.'
Secretary General Pedro Ortiz of Spain conceded, however, that Israeli nuclear strikes had brought the two-week-old war to a standstill. He announced that Arab forces are to begin withdrawing from Israeli territory over the next two days under a U.N. plan which will include American and Soviet observers.
Meanwhile, military and scientific authorities have been attempting to evaluate the effect of the five nuclear blasts which shattered Arab troop, supply, and communications targets. Most are estimated at 100-kiloton yields
