Yes, the Air Force Planned to Use Nuclear Weapons Against Nuclear Bombers Using nuclear weapons over your own airspace to defend yourself against nuclear attack is more than a little ironic. Key point: The Cold War was a time of all kinds of wild ideas. However, not all of those actually made sense. On July 19, 1957 five Air Force officers assembled in the open desert basin of the Yucca Flats of Nevada and glanced with nervous smiles up at a jet fighter flying high overhead. They were accompanied by a civilian defense photographer wearing a baseball hat named George Yoshitake. The object of their consternation was a Northrop F-89J Scorpion, a two-seat radar-equipped air defense interceptor designed to shoot down Soviet nuclear bombers before they unleash their deadly payload on the United States.