The
French ''airborne nuclear warheads (TN81)'' is a
thermonuclear warhead
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a low ...
carried by the
Air-Sol Moyenne Portée (ASMP) medium-range
air-to-surface missile
An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...
, a component of the
Force de frappe
The ''Force de frappe'' (French language, French: "strike force"), or ''Force de dissuasion'' ("deterrent force") after 1961,Gunston, Bill. Bombers of the West. New York: Charles Scribner's and Sons; 1973. p104 is the designation of what used to ...
French nuclear deterrent. The warhead was introduced in 1988. By 1991, 80 warheads had been produced.
Deployment: 60 warheads carried by the ASMP equipping the 60
Mirage 2000 N with the French Air Force and 20
Super Etendard
Super may refer to:
Computing
* SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter / player
* Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages
* Super key (keyboard butt ...
of Naval Aviation. The TN81 has a yield of 300
kilotons
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a m ...
It has been replaced by 54
TNA (Airborne nuclear warhead)
The French ''Tête nucléaire aéroportée - Airborne nuclear warhead (TNA)'' is a thermonuclear warhead carried by the Air-Sol Moyenne Portée Amélioré (ASMPA) medium-range air-to-surface missile, a component of the Force de frappe French nucle ...
thermonuclear warhead
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a low ...
carried by the ASMPA equipping the
Mirage 2000 N and
Dassault Rafale
The Dassault Rafale (, literally meaning "gust of wind", and "burst of fire" in a more military sense) is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. Equipped with a wide ran ...
.
Specifications:
*
thermonuclear weapon
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...
* yield from 100 to 300
kiloton
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a t ...
*
insensitive explosives
References
Nuclear warheads of France
Military equipment introduced in the 1980s
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