What was AFSWP — the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project?

“AFSWP — the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project — was the joint U.S. military command that managed the nation's nuclear-weapons stockpile and handling sites from 1947 to 1959. AFSWP's Sandia Base in Albuquerque was the central nuclear-handling facility during the 1948-1950 green fireball phenomena and appears throughout the PURSUE DOC-141 declassification.”

AFSWP, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, was a joint U.S. military command established in 1947 to manage the operational aspects of the U.S. nuclear-weapons stockpile, including weapons handling, storage, training, and effects testing. AFSWP was headquartered at Sandia Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico — a facility that sat at the geographic and operational center of the U.S. nuclear-weapons complex of the era. In 1959 AFSWP was reorganized as the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA), which later became the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA) and eventually the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). AFSWP is referenced extensively in the 116-page DOC-141 bundle declassified under PURSUE Release 02 — Sandia Base / AFSWP correspondence about the 1948-1950 green-fireball phenomena, including transmittals to the Strategic Air Command Board and the 1st Indorsement from SAC dated April 1949. AFSWP retained Dr. Lincoln LaPaz to investigate.