The W81 was a planned American warhead to be mounted on the
SM-2 surface-to-air missile used by the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. The W81 was believed to be derived from the
B61 nuclear bomb
The B61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the United States Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War. It is a low to intermediate-yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation im ...
which forms the backbone of the current US nuclear gravity bomb arsenal and from which the
W80 cruise missile warhead is derived. The weapon was being designed at
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...
(at the time called Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory).
[,]
Design
The W81 went through several design iterations, starting with an
enhanced radiation model, then a pure fission model and cancelled in 1986.
[
Characteristics are not known in detail, but the B61 it is derived from has a physics package (bomb core) of about diameter with length of , weighing around (see the W80, another B61 derived design). Available LASL images show a much shorter weapon, perhaps , probably the final fission-only W81 concept, corresponding with the size of the B61 fission primary alone.]
See also
* List of nuclear weapons
This is a list of nuclear weapons listed according to country of origin, and then by type within the states.
United States
US nuclear weapons of all types – bombs, warheads, shells, and others – are numbered in the same sequence starting wi ...
* Standard missile
* B61 nuclear bomb
The B61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the United States Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War. It is a low to intermediate-yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation im ...
* B61 Family The B61 Family is a series of nuclear weapons based on the B61 nuclear bomb.
B61 nuclear bomb
Initial development
The B61 bomb was developed by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL; now Los Alamos National Laboratory) starting in 1960. The inte ...
References
{{United States nuclear devices
Nuclear warheads of the United States
Abandoned military projects of the United States