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Nuclear weapons are designed to be the ultimate deterrent—powerful, controlled, and secured at all times. But history tells a different story. Over the years, the U.S. military has lost or nearly lost nuclear warheads in shocking accidents at sea, leaving deadly bombs at the bottom of the ocean or, in some cases, simply vanishing without a trace. These incidents, known as “Broken Arrows,” expose the terrifying reality of what happens when nuclear firepower meets the unpredictability of the open ocean.
One of the most infamous incidents occurred on February 5, 1958, off the coast of Georgia. A B-47 bomber carrying a Mark 15 hydrogen bomb collided with an F-86 fighter during a training mission. With the damaged bomber struggling to stay airborne, the crew made a desperate decision—they jettisoned the nuke into the waters near Tybee Island before safely landing. The Air Force assured the public that the bomb, which contained uranium and high explosives, was “safe.” But despite extensive searches, the weapon was never found. To this day, the 7,600-pound bomb remains buried somewhere beneath the sand and water, its potential danger unknown.
That was just one of many. On April 9, 1968, the USS Scorpion, a nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with two nuclear-tipped torpedoes, mysteriously disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean with 99 crew members on board. Months later, the wreckage was found deep under the sea, but the cause of the disaster remains hotly debated. Was it a mechanical failure? A Soviet attack? No one knows for sure. What is certain is that the nuclear warheads on board are still down there, slowly corroding in the dark depths.
Another chilling case happened in 1965 when an A-4 Skyhawk fighter jet, armed with a one-megaton nuclear bomb, rolled off the deck of the USS Ticonderoga and sank into the Pacific Ocean near Japan’s Ryukyu Islands. The jet, pilot, and bomb were lost in over 16,000 feet of water, and the U.S. Navy kept the accident secret for more than two decades. The revelation sparked outrage, especially in Japan, where the presence of American nuclear weapons was already a deeply controversial issue.
Perhaps the most catastrophic of all came on January 17, 1966, when a B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs collided with a refueling tanker over Palomares, Spain. The mid-air explosion killed seven crew members and sent the bombs hurtling toward the ground. Two of them ruptured on impact, scattering radioactive plutonium across the Spanish countryside. U.S. troops scrambled to clean up the contamination, but the damage was done. Meanwhile, the fourth bomb landed in the Mediterranean Sea. It took the Navy nearly three months of frantic searching before deep-sea recovery teams finally located the missing weapon, sitting ominously at the bottom of the ocean.
These incidents are only a fraction of the nuclear near-misses that have occurred at sea. In some cases, nuclear weapons were successfully recovered; in others, they were never found. Each accident represents a chilling reminder that even the most powerful and secretive weapons on Earth are not immune to human error, mechanical failures, or the uncontrollable forces of nature.
Somewhere in the depths of the ocean, lost nuclear warheads continue to rust, their potential for destruction lurking in the cold, dark silence.