Thermonuclear Milestones: (3) The Race Accelerates

No more than four days after President Harry Truman's January 1950 directive to continue US work on the superbomb, the problem of “measures to ensure the progress of RDS‐6” was discussed in the USSR at a meeting of the Special Committee. On 26 February, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution that commissioned the First Central Administration at the Council of Ministers, Laboratory No. 2 of the Academy of Sciences, and KB‐11 to organize analytical‐theoretical, experimental and design operations on the construction of devices RDS‐6s (Sloika, the Layer Cake) and RDS‐6t (Truba, the Tube). (See the preceding article for descriptions of these thermonuclear bomb designs.)