The TN 90 was a

variable yield Variable yield, or dial-a-yield, is an option available on most modern nuclear weapons. It allows the operator to specify a weapon's yield, or explosive power, allowing a single design to be used in different situations. For example, the Mod-10 ...

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 lowe ...

developed by France for the Hadès tactical missile, designed to replace the

AN 51 The AN 51 was a French tactical nuclear warhead used on the Pluton short range missile, the Pluton system was retired in 1992–93. The warhead was based upon the MR 50 CTC (''charge tactique commune'' - common tactical warhead) warhead, with t ...

Pluton In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

system. Development began in 1983, and production in 1990. However, following the

collapse of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, production was halted after only 30 of an intended 180 warheads were built, and they were immediately put into storage. The Hadès missiles, and their TN-90 warheads, were retired, along with all French land-based missiles, in 1996. By the end of 2000 the TN 90's were at CEA Valduc waiting to be disassembled.

References

Nuclear warheads of France Military equipment introduced in the 1990s {{France-stub