An inert missile of the type used to carry a nuclear warhead in the garage of the home of a deceased resident in Washington (communication sites)

Police in Bellevue, King County, Washington state, found a missile used to carry a nuclear warhead inside the garage of a dead man's home.

According to what local newspapers reported yesterday, Saturday, February 3, 2024, “Bellevue police responded on Thursday (local time) to a report of the presence of a military missile in the garage of a house in the city.”

The police posted a picture of the missile on its Twitter page, commenting, “We think it will take a long time before we receive another call like this again.”

And we think it's gonna be a long, long time before we get another call like this again 🚀https://t.co/QePBTkDVFk pic.twitter.com/YXslykeOIT

— Bellevue, WA Police (@BvuePD) February 2, 2024

She added, "The Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, called to report an offer to donate the item, which a neighbor said his late neighbor had purchased at auction."

Bomb squad members examined the rusty object and found it to be an unguided air-to-air missile designed to carry a 1.5-kiloton nuclear warhead.

According to the authorities’ statement, the warhead was not connected, “and there was no rocket fuel...which means that the particle was an artifact with no explosive danger. Because the object was inert and the army did not request its recovery, the police left the object with neighbors to restore and display in a museum.” .

The United States and Canada used this type of unguided air-to-air missiles during the Cold War, when Soviet strategic bombers posed a major strategic threat.

In July 1957, a Jenny missile was launched at an altitude of 5,500 meters from an F-89G interceptor plane and exploded over Yucca Flats in the US state of Nevada, the first and only test explosion of an American air-to-air missile equipped with a nuclear warhead. .

Air-to-air missile

An air-to-air missile is a guided missile that is launched with one or two engines, and usually uses solid fuel, except for a few cases in which liquid fuel is used.

Air-to-air missiles are generally divided into 3 types: short-range, sometimes called “dog fighting” missiles, medium or long-range, and missiles outside visual range.

Short-range missiles are usually guided by infrared rays, while medium- and long-range missiles are guided by one type or another of radar guidance (sometimes by inertial guidance), and missiles outside visual range are launched by optical-electronic guidance.

The origins of air-to-air missiles go back to World War II, when Germany was the first country to try to develop them. Then the United States introduced them into service starting in 1956, when the AIM-4 Falcon and the AIM-7 Sparrow entered service with the Air Force. The AIM-9 Sidewinder is in Navy service.

In 1957, the Soviet Air Force began fielding the first type of Soviet air-to-air missile, the Kaliningrad K-5.

Source: Al Jazeera + American press + social networking sites