Frigate Bird nuclear explosion (viewed through the periscope of USS Carbonero (SS-337) 480 nm ENE of Christmas Island)

Text about this photo from the US Navy [1] archive copy at the Wayback Machine

Seen through the periscope of USS Carbonero (SS-337), submerged 25 miles from the aim point, this graphic illustration shows Frigate Bird’s mushroom-shaped cloud boiling skyward from its original burst altitude of 11,000 feet. The range clock at the upper right indicates 1433, which was the local time at the launching point. (Local time at the aim point was one hour earlier.)

The dictionary describes the frigate bird – sometimes called the man’o’war bird – as “any of several rapacious totipalmate sea birds of the genus Fregata, noted for their powers of flight.” Indeed with a wingspan up to 90 inches and the male’s ability to inflate his bright-red pouch during courtship in a spectacular display, the frigate bird is a unique animal. Equally unique was a nuclear test of that same name conducted near Christmas Island in the Pacific during May 1962. Even now, the Frigate Bird test remains the only end-to-end system test of a strategic nuclear missile – from launch to detonation – ever carried out by either side during the Cold War. And the Frigate Bird Test was a Submarine Force demonstration, featuring a Polaris A-2 missile fired from USS Ethan Allan (SSBN-608).

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