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The weapon is notable for being the smallest nuclear weapon in both weight and yield to have entered US service. It was a compact implosion device containing plutonium-239 as its fissile material, [ 1 ] and in its various versions and mods it had a yield of 10 to 1,000 tons of TNT (42 to 4,184 gigajoules ).
Advances in nuclear weapons technology, spurred on by the first detonation of the Soviet nuclear bomb in 1949, led to great reductions in the size of nuclear weapons. By 1957, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) declared that it had created a small fission warhead that could be deployed for frontline use by infantrymen.
Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union have ever made public the existence or development of weapons small enough to fit into a normal-sized suitcase or briefcase. [3] The W48 however, does fit the criteria of small, easily disguised, and portable. Its explosive yield was extremely small for a nuclear weapon. [4] [5]
U.S. officials view a W54 nuclear warhead (with a 10- or 20-ton explosive yield) as used on the Davy Crockett recoilless gun, one of the smallest nuclear weapons ever made. A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) [1] is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly ...
W48 AFAP on display (middle) The W48 was an American nuclear artillery shell, capable of being fired from any standard 155-millimetre (6.1 in) howitzer.A tactical nuclear weapon, it was manufactured starting in 1963, and all units were retired in 1992.
The Air Force now has the B-61-12 tactical nuclear bomb ready for operational use on its 20 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. ... weapons made of high-strength steel have a higher maximum yield of 340 ...
The components of a B83 nuclear bomb used by the United States. This is a list of nuclear weapons listed according to country of origin, and then by type within the states. . The United States, Russia, China and India are known to possess a nuclear triad, being capable to deliver nuclear weapons by land, sea and
Developed between 1956 and 1961 as the Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms race with the United States, the Tsar Bomba - the King of Bombs - was the largest hydrogen bomb ever and was claimed ...