The W45 was a multipurpose American

nuclear warhead 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 bom ...

developed in the early 1960s, first built in 1962 and fielded in some applications until 1988. It had a diameter of 11.5 inches (292 mm), a length of 27 inches (686 mm) and weighed 150 pounds (68 kg). The yields of different W45 versions were 0.5, 1, 5, 8, 10, and 15

kiloton 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 ...

s. The W45 was designed at the Livermore branch of the University of California Radiation Laboratory (UCRL), now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The W45 used a common nuclear fission core called the Robin primary, which was used as the fission primary in the thermonuclear W38 and

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 ...

weapons. Applications of the W45 warhead included: *

Little John Little John is a companion of Robin Hood who serves as his chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men. He is one of only a handful of consistently named characters who relate to Robin Hood and one of the two oldest Merry Men, al ...

SSM *

Terrier Terrier (from Latin ''terra'', 'earth') is a type of dog originally bred to hunt vermin. A terrier is a dog of any one of many breeds or landraces of the terrier type, which are typically small, wiry, game, and fearless. Terrier breeds vary ...

SAM *

Medium Atomic Demolition Munition Medium Atomic Demolition Munition (MADM) was a tactical nuclear weapon developed by the United States during the Cold War. It was an Atomic demolition munition, a combat engineering device for demolition of structures and for battlefield shapin ...

or MADM * Bullpup ASM

External links

Allbombs.html list of all US nuclear warheads
a
nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices Nuclear warheads of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1960s

See also

External links