The B90 Nuclear Depth Strike Bomb (NDSB) was an American thermonuclear bomb designed at Lawrence Livermore National Labs in the mid-to-late 1980s and cancelled prior to introduction into military service due to the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

. The B90 design was intended for use as a naval aircraft weapon, for use as a nuclear depth bomb and as a land attack strike bomb. It was intended to replace the

B57 nuclear bomb The B57 nuclear bomb was a tactical nuclear weapon developed by the United States during the Cold War. Entering production in 1963 as the Mk 57, the bomb was designed to be dropped from high-speed tactical aircraft. It had a streamlined casing ...

used by the Navy. The B90 bomb design entered Phase 3 development engineering and was assigned its numerical designation in June 1988. The B90 was in diameter and long, and weighed . The B90's yield has been described at both and "low kt". This may indicate a variable yield weapon. The B90 was cancelled in September 1991 along with the

W89 The W89 was an American thermonuclear warhead design intended for use on the AGM-131 SRAM II air to ground nuclear missile and the UUM-125 Sea Lance anti-submarine missile. What was to become the W89 design was awarded to the Lawrence Livermor ...

and W91 nuclear warheads and

AGM-131 SRAM II The AGM-131 SRAM II ("Short-Range Attack Missile") was a nuclear air-to-surface missile intended as a replacement for the AGM-69 SRAM. The solid-fueled missile was to be dropped from a B-1B Lancer, carry the W89 warhead and have a range of 400&n ...

and SRAM-T missile models. No B90 production models were built, though test units may have been; US nuclear weapon testing continued until 1992.

References

External links

University of California 1989 nuclear weapons labs status report

at the Nuclear Weapon Archive a
nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices Nuclear bombs of the United States Cold War aerial bombs of the United States Depth charges

See also

References

External links