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The Soviets were pretty keen on live fire tests - their very first test of a staged thermonuclear device was air dropped. Air drop tests were fairly common, AFAIK the only people who have done a live launch of a nuke on a missile were the Chinese.



The Soviets tested an R-13 SLBM with a live warhead in 1961. A Polaris SLBM with a live warhead was tested by the US in 1962 as part of Operation Dominic. I don't think either country did a live test of an ICBM though.


I appear to have mis-remembered - the Chinese test was an MRBM:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongfeng_(missile)#Dongfeng_2


Even so, testing a live nuclear missile with a 1,250km range must be tremendously exciting.


That's one word for it!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01WpGDwSPpg

The US tested a live Polaris in 1962. They were responsible enough to cook it off at 11,000 ft, a real combat launch would likely have been detonated closer to the ground.




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