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The Mark-12 nuclear bomb was a lightweight nuclear bomb designed and manufactured by the United States which was built starting in 1954 and which saw service from then until 1962.
The Mark-12 was notable for being significantly smaller in both size and weight compared to prior
The complete Mark-12 bomb was in diameter, long, and weighed . It had a yield of .
allbombs.html list at nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices Cold War aerial bombs of the United States Nuclear bombs of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s
implosion-type nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types:
* pure fission weapons, the simplest and least technically ...
s. For example, the overall diameter was only , compared to the immediately prior Mark-7 which had a diameter, and the volume of the implosion assembly was only 40% the size of the Mark-7's.
There was a planned W-12 warhead variant which would have been used with the RIM-8 Talos
Bendix RIM-8 Talos was a long-range naval surface-to-air missile, and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. The Talos used radar beam riding for guidance to the vicinity of its target, and semiactive r ...
missile, but it was cancelled prior to introduction into service.
Specifications
The complete Mark-12 bomb was in diameter, long, and weighed . It had a yield of .
Features
The Mark-12 has been speculated to have been the first deployed nuclear weapon to have usedberyllium
Beryllium is a chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with other elements to form m ...
as a reflector-tamper inside the implosion assembly (see nuclear weapon design
Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types:
* pure fission weapons, the simplest and least technically ...
). It is believed to have used a spherical implosion assembly, levitated pit
The pit, named after the hard core found in fruits such as peaches and apricots, is the core of an implosion nuclear weapon – the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it. Some weapons tested during the 1950s used p ...
, and 92-point detonation.
In popular culture
Though the weapon went out of service in 1962, it resurfaced in a fictional role inTom Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have ...
's 1991 book '' The Sum of All Fears'' and the 2002 film, where the plot included an Israeli copy of the Mark-12 being lost by accident in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
in southern Syria near the Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
, and then recovered by a terrorist organization.
See also
*Nuclear weapon design
Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types:
* pure fission weapons, the simplest and least technically ...
* Mark 7 nuclear bomb
Mark 7 "Thor" (or Mk-7') was the first tactical fission bomb adopted by US armed forces. It was also the first weapon to be delivered using the toss method with the help of the low-altitude bombing system (LABS). The weapon was tested in Operati ...
* '' The Sum of All Fears''
* ''The Sum of All Fears (film)
''The Sum of All Fears'' is a 2002 American spy thriller film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, based on Tom Clancy's 1991 novel of the same name. The film, which is set in the ''Jack Ryan'' film series, is a reboot taking place in 2002. Jac ...
''
References
External links
allbombs.html list at nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices Cold War aerial bombs of the United States Nuclear bombs of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s