Redstate

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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

My father knew the guy who designed the proximity fuse for the warhead, which worked very well. The main problem with the Davy Crockett was that at the higher yields (the yield was selectable in a range of about two orders of magnitude)especially, the troops who fired it would be inside the blast radius of the weapon -- because the range of even the biggest bazooka (and that picture is an example of the largest I believe) wasn't great enough to put them out of danger from the blast and fallout.

Therefore it was the "Ultimate Last Ditch Weapon" and if anyone had ever had to use it, they were probably dead anyway, or were soon to be dead.

The warhead and fusing worked very well within the constraints of the design, however. It was first successfully test fired in 1962 with Robert F. Kennedy in attendance and deployed (although never used) until 1971, IIRC. Thank God nobody ever had to fire one in anger.

The Atomic Cannon was a more practical weapon in a tactical sense, insofar as it fired its projectile a lot further even though it was hard to move around. Both are thoroughly obsolete today, and we can also note that the overall nuclear situation has improved greatly from the point of view of the main powers, at least. We have fewer than 1/10th the number of active, deliverable warheads than we did in 1971.

Of course, that's not stopping the Iranians. Mahmoud is a hungry man.

And I guess you would be the World's Most Freaked Out Jeep Driver if someone in your platoon had just fired one. In a Jeep at least, you might have a chance to drive out of the fallout zone.