The W60 was nuclear warhead developed for 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 ...

's long range Typhon LR

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

History

Typhon development started in November 1959 with a conceptual study of the system and in March 1960 the Atomic Energy Commission was asked to begin feasibility studies for a nuclear warhead for the system, which they reported back on in June. In August 1961, the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...

) was assigned development of the warhead and in November the XW-60 name was assigned to the program. In February 1962 a safety study determined that the warhead had an inherent fire safety risk leading to the development of a fire-protection package for the weapon. This was followed by further fire safety concerns in 1963. The medium range version of the system () was cancelled around this time while the long-range version of the system was reorientated towards a weapon and relegated to study-only. The warhead was cancelled in December 1963 following the cancellation of the Typhon missile that same month due to cost and system vulnerability. In approximately 1966, the XW60 was briefly considered alongside the

W58 The W58 was an American thermonuclear warhead used on the 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 and long, and weighed . The y ...

warhead for possible use in the AGM-69 SRAM

air-to-surface missile An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...

. The Los Alamos

W69 The W69 was a United States nuclear warhead used in the AGM-69 SRAM ( Short-Range Attack Missile). It was designed in the early 1970s and entered the U.S. stockpile in 1972. The weapon was retired between 1991 and 1994. About 1,500 warheads were ...

warhead was ultimately chosen for the system.

Design

The W60 weighed between , was long and in diameter. The warhead yield has been variously described as "lower than that of the W58" (which had a yield of ) and "very low".

References

*Hansen, Chuck, "Swords of Armageddon," Sunnyvale, CA, Chucklea Publications, 1995. Nuclear weapons of the United States 1959 establishments in the United States 1964 disestablishments in the United States {{Nuclear-weapon-stub