BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) — An inert rocket of the type used to carry a nuclear warhead has been found in the garage of a home of a deceased resident in Washington state, police said. Bellevue police responded Thursday to a report of a military-grade rocket in the garage of a home in the city across Lake Washington from Seattle. Bomb squad members inspected the rusting object and found it was a Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1), an unguided air-to-air rocket that is designed to carry a 1.5 kt W25 nuclear warhead. According to the Air Force Armament Museum Foundation, the unguided air-to-air rocket was used by the U.S. and Canada during a period of the Cold War when interception of Soviet strategic bombers was a major military concern. In July 1957, a Genie was launched at 18,000 feet (about 5,500 meters) from an F89J interceptor and detonated over Yucca Flats, Nevada, the first and only test detonation of a U.S. nuclear-tipped air-to-air rocket.

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Persons: Douglas Organizations: Seattle . Police, Air Force, Douglas AIR, Air Force Armament Museum Foundation, U.S, Soviet, Twitter Locations: BELLEVUE, Wash, Washington, Bellevue, Lake Washington, Seattle, Dayton , Ohio, Canada, Flats , Nevada, U.S