The W63 was the

Lawrence Livermore 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 respons ...

's entry into a brief competition between Livermore and Los Alamos to design a warhead for the Army's

Lance A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier (lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike s ...

tactical surface to surface missile. In July 1964 both Livermore Labs and Los Alamos started developing competing warheads for the Lance. The Los Alamos design, the W64, was canceled in September 1964 in favor of Livermore's W63. In November 1966 W63 was canceled in favor of the

W70 W70 was a two-stage, thermonuclear warhead that was developed for the MGM-52 Lance missile by the United States. Designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Mod 1 and Mod 2 version of the weapon entered service in 1973, while the enha ...

References

* Hansen, Chuck,
Swords of Armageddon
(CD-ROM & download available). PDF. 2,600 pages, Sunnyvale, California, Chucklea Publications, 1995, 2007. (2nd Ed.)

External links

U.S. Nuclear Warheads, 1945-2009
Nuclear weapons of the United States {{Nuclear-weapon-stub