Operation Blowdown

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Operation Blowdown

Date	July 18, 1963
Location	Queensland, Australia
Result	Tested the effects of a nuclear blast on rain forest

Commanders

Operation Blowdown was a military operation of July 18, 1963. Conducted in northern Queensland, Australia by a joint Australian-US-UK team it tested the effects of a nuclear blast on rain forest, although not with a nuclear bomb.

A device containing 50 tons of TNT was detonated to partially simulate a ten kiloton air burst in the Iron Range jungle. The explosives were sourced from obsolete shells and placed in a tower 42 meters above ground level and 21 meters above the rain forest canopy. After the explosion troops were moved through the area which was now covered in up to a meter of leaf litter, to test their ability to transit across the debris. In addition, old vehicles and equipment left near the center of the explosion were destroyed.

It is probable the operation was intended to test the feasibility of using nuclear weapons to clear jungle.^{[citation needed]}

US participation included establishment of pressure measurement equipment and the loan of photographic and instrumentation equipment.