The Mark 13 nuclear bomb and its variant, the W-13 nuclear warhead, were experimental

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

developed by the United States from 1951 to 1954. The Mark 13 design was based on the earlier

Mark 6 nuclear bomb The Mark 6 nuclear bomb was an American nuclear bomb based on the earlier Mark 4 nuclear bomb and its predecessor, the Mark 3 Fat Man nuclear bomb design. The Mark 6 was in production from 1951 to 1955 and saw service until 1962. Seven variants ...

design, which was in turn based on the

Mark 4 nuclear bomb The Mark 4 nuclear bomb was an American implosion-type nuclear bomb based on the earlier Mark 3 Fat Man design, used in the Trinity test and the bombing of Nagasaki. With the Mark 3 needing each individual component to be hand-assembled by only h ...

and the

Mark 3 nuclear bomb "Fat Man" (also known as Mark III) is the codename for the type of nuclear bomb the United States detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the firs ...

used at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Description

The Mark 13 bomb was nearly the same size as the

it was developed from; 61 inches in diameter and 128 inches long (150 cm by 320 cm), weighing 7,400 lb (3,300 kg). The W-13 warhead was somewhat smaller, being roughly 58 inches in diameter and 100 inches long, with a 6,000 to 6,500 lb weight (145 cm by 250 cm, 2,700 kg to 2,900 kg).Complete list of all US nuclear weapons
Carey Sublette, at th
nuclearweaponarchive.org
website. Accessed April 17, 2007. The Mark 13 design used a 92-point nuclear implosion system (see

Nuclear weapon design 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 ...

). A similar 92-point system was used in later variants of the Mark 6 weapon.

Testing

The Mark 13 nuclear bomb design was tested at least once, in the

Operation Upshot–Knothole Operation Upshot–Knothole was a series of eleven nuclear test shots conducted in 1953 at the Nevada Test Site. It followed ''Operation Ivy'' and preceded ''Operation Castle''. Over 21,000 soldiers took part in the ground exercise Desert Roc ...

Harry Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

test shot conducted on May 19, 1953. The estimated yield of this test was 32

kilotons TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a m ...

Deployment

As the Mark 13 neared production, advances in thermonuclear weapon design, particularly the

Ivy Mike Ivy Mike was the codename given to the first full-scale test of a thermonuclear device, in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion. Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952, by the United States on the island of Elugelab in ...

thermonuclear test in November 1952, made the Mark 13 obsolete. Development continued for research purposes (the Upshot-Knothole Harry test shot came months after the first thermonuclear test in Ivy Mike), and in two variant designs, but the Mark 13 proper was never deployed. The Mark 13 bomb version was cancelled in August 1953, and the W-13

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...

version was cancelled in September 1953.

Variants

Mark 18

The

Mark 18 nuclear bomb The Mark 18 nuclear bomb, also known as the SOB or Super Oralloy Bomb, was an American nuclear bomb design which was the highest yield fission bomb produced by the US. The Mark 18 had a design yield of 500 kilotons. Noted nuclear weapon designer ...

also known as the Super Oralloy Bomb (or its initials SOB) utilized the 92-point Mark 13 implosion system, but a different fissile core with around 60 kilograms of

highly enriched uranium Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238U ...

(

Oralloy Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238U ...

). This was the largest pure fission nuclear bomb ever tested, with a yield of more than 500 kilotons. The Mark 18 was produced in moderate quantities (90 units) and in service from 1953 to 1956.

Mark 20

The Mark 20 nuclear bomb was a planned successor to the Mark 13 incorporating some improvements in its design. Research was halted at the same time as the Mark 13. The Mark 20 was the same size as the Mark 13, but weighed only .

References

{{United States nuclear devices Cold War aerial bombs of the United States Nuclear bombs of the United States