The W42 was an American nuclear

fission 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 ...

developed in 1957. In December 1957 the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

requested the Atomic Energy Commission to develop a nuclear warhead for the HAWK low- to medium-altitude surface-to-air missile. In July 1958 the military characteristics were approved for the new warhead and the design released. Two months later the requirement for a HAWK with a nuclear warhead was cancelled. The warhead was briefly considered for the

AAM-N-10 Eagle The AAM-N-10 Eagle was a long-range air-to-air missile developed by the Bendix Corporation for use by the United States Navy. Intended for carriage by the Douglas F6D Missileer fleet defense fighter, the Eagle program was cancelled before testing ...

long-range air-to-air missileParsch 2003 The dimensions of the warhead were wide by long. It weighed and used a

proximity fuze A proximity fuze (or fuse) is a Fuze (munitions), fuze that detonates an Explosive material, explosive device automatically when the distance to the target becomes smaller than a predetermined value. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such ...

. The project was cancelled in June 1961.

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* * Nuclear weapons of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s {{nuclear-weapon-stub