Sandia Base - The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and Its Successors

The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and Its Successors

AFSWP was given responsibility for discharging all military functions relating to atomic energy in coordination with the Atomic Energy Commission. General Groves was placed in charge and reported directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Concerned about the postwar status of the nation's nuclear stockpile, Groves had already dispatched Col. Gilbert M. Dorland to Sandia Base to evaluate the engineering efforts being made there. Dorland eventually assembled a group of about sixty young Army officers, later nicknamed the "Sandia Pioneers," to oversee the bomb fabrication efforts. Dorland also established a nuclear weapons training school at Sandia Base.

The Pioneers learned and practiced how to assemble atomic bombs and how to load them onto aircraft for long range missions. The aircraft used for these practice missions were Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers similar to the ones that flew the first atomic missions over Japan in 1945. The Pioneers and the 509th Bombardment Group (successor to the 509th Composite Group that flew the 1945 missions) flew the practice missions from Kirtland AFB to Wendover, Utah. The 509th was stationed at Walker Air Force Base near Roswell, New Mexico.

On April 12, 1950, a B-29 from the 509th Bombardment Group crashed at Sandia Base shortly after takeoff. Thirteen crewmen were killed. The military imposed strict security over the crash site. The official version of the crash stated that the B-29 was on a routine "navigation training flight." The Air Force said the B-29 had taken off from Walker AFB and had landed at Kirtland AFB to "refuel."

At Sandia Base, the Pioneers worked with Sandia Laboratory and the AEC to perfect the design, assembly, storage, and delivery of atomic weapons. In 1948, the Pioneers supported Operation SANDSTONE, the atmospheric test series at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The SANDSTONE test series was successful, but logistics, weather, security, and safety suggested the need for a continental test site. Thus, AFSWP conducted a top secret study, named Project Nutmeg, to search for such a site. In 1950, AFSWP concluded that a site on the Air Force's Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range in Nevada was the right place. President Truman approved the location, known as Frenchman Flat.

The first continental atomic test was conducted on January 27, 1951. A weapon assembled at Sandia Base was dropped from a Boeing B-50 Superfortress ("D" model) bomber ( in the successful "Able" shot. Thereafter, some 927 atmospheric and underground nuclear tests occurred at what is now known as the Nevada Test Site. These tests were supported by AFSWP and its successors from Sandia Base and its successor.

A United States Naval Air Detachment of eleven aircraft assigned to Sandia Base in June 1949 was sequentially renamed the Naval Air Special Weapons Facility (NASWF) in August 1952, the Naval Nuclear Ordnance Evaluation Unit (NNOEU) in 1958, and the Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility (NWEF) in March 1961. Before the NWEF ceased flight test operations in September 1992, nuclear compatibility and safety certification had been completed for 76 versions of 32 different Navy nuclear-capable fighter and attack aircraft. Following accidents aboard USS Oriskany in 1966 and Forrestal in 1967, NWEF applied nuclear safety protocols to develop procedures to safely stow, handle, transport, assemble, disassemble, preload, load, unload, arm, dearm, rearm, and deliver non-nuclear aviation ordnance including bombs, torpedoes, naval mines, missiles and conventional stores from sonobuoys to Air-Delivered Seismic Intrusion Detectors (ADSID).

In 1959, because AFSWP was redesignated the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA), the Sandia Base was designated Headquarters Field Command, DASA. Over the next dozen years, Field Command was headed by Army, Navy, and Air Force officers.

Sandia Base personnel were dispatched to assist in two major incidents involving the loss and recovery of nuclear weapons in the 1960s. In 1966, a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber and a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker air refueling plane collided in mid-air over the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain. This event is referred to as the Palomares incident. Three of four missing nuclear weapons were found near the fishing village of Palomares in Spain. The fourth was found in the sea after a lengthy search. The second incident occurred in 1968 when a B-52 bomber crashed near Thule, Greenland. Three weapons were recovered; a fourth is believed to remain in the ocean.

Always on the itinerary of key political figures, Sandia Base hosted President John F. Kennedy on December 7, 1962. On April 17, 1966, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey toured facilities at Sandia Base.

In 1971, DASA was redesignated Defense Nuclear Agency. The field activities remained at Sandia Base, which was merged into Kirtland Air Force Base. Defense Nuclear Agency returned to its roots by being renamed Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) without further change of mission or functions in 1996. DSWA was abolished, effective October 1, 1998, with functions transferred to the newly established Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).