Kinglet was a boosted fission primary used in several American
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 low ...
s.
The W55 warhead for the
UUM-44 SUBROC
The UUM-44 SUBROC (SUBmarine ROCket) was a type of submarine-launched rocket deployed by the United States Navy as an anti-submarine weapon. It carried a 250 kiloton thermonuclear warhead configured as a nuclear depth bomb.
Development
SUBRO ...
anti-submarine missile and the
W58
The W58 was an American nuclear bomb, thermonuclear warhead used on the UGM-27 Polaris, Polaris A-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile. Three W58 warheads were fitted as multiple warheads on each Polaris A-3 missile.
The W58 was in diameter a ...
warhead for
Polaris A-3 were designed to use Kinglet, while the
W47
The W47 was an American thermonuclear warhead used on the Polaris A-1 sub-launched ballistic missile system. Various models were in service from 1960 through the end of 1974. The warhead was developed by the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory between 1 ...
warhead for Polaris A-1/A-2 were retrofitted with Kinglet to overcome the technical issues with the
Robin primary the W47 was initially deployed with.
Allegedly, only the W47Y2 was converted to the Mod 3 design using Kinglet.
Design
The Kinglet device was approximately in diameter, in length and weighed approximately .
The device was of the two-point design. Two-point devices only require two detonators to fire the whole device, compared to earlier nuclear weapons that required tens of detonators.
Characteristics of the warheads that used Kinglet are:
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 ...
*
Teller-Ulam design
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 ...
*
Tsetse primary The Tsetse was a small American nuclear bomb developed in the 1950s that was used as the primary in several US thermonuclear bombs and as a small stand-alone weapon of its own.
The Tsetse had a boosted composite core which used 2.25 kg Pu-239, 1. ...
*
Python primary
According to researcher Chuck Hansen, the W34 Python was a gas-boosted fission primary used in several designs of American thermonuclear weapons.
Hansen's research indicates that the W34 Python primary was used in the US B28 nuclear bomb, W28, ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
Beware the old storyby Chuck Hansen, ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'', March/April 2001 pp. 52-55 (vol. 57, no. 02)
*http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons?Allbombs.html
*The History of the UK. Strategic Deterrent: The Chevaline Programme. Published:2004 by the Royal Aeronautical Society, London.
{{United States nuclear devices
Nuclear bombs of the United States