The W67 was an American
thermonuclear warhead
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 ...
developed from June 1966 but then cancelled prior to any production or service use approximately 18 months later.
Developed by
Los Alamos, the warhead was in the megaton range and was to have a yield comparable to that of the
W56
The W56 (originally called the Mark 56) was an American thermonuclear warhead produced starting in 1963 which saw service until 1993, on the Minuteman I and II ICBMs.
The warhead had a yield of and a demonstrated yield-to-weight ratio of , ve ...
. It was housed in the Mark 17 reentry vehicle and one of the warhead's design goals was the highest maximum output temperature possible. Only one partial yield test of the warhead was performed before the warhead was cancelled in January 1968. Hansen identifies this test as
Crosstie Zara.
The Mark 17 RV had a difficult development. The planned total RV and warhead weight was , but by November 1966 it weighed due to the higher than anticipated levels of hostile weapons effects protection needed. The actual warhead weight was .
After its cancellation, the
W68
The W68 warhead was the warhead used on the UGM-73 Poseidon SLBM missile. It was developed in the late 1960s at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Specifications
The W68 weighed and had an official design yield of .
The design was revol ...
warhead was developed for
Poseidon
Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...
and the
W62 warhead for
Minuteman III
The LGM-30 Minuteman is an American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in service with the Air Force Global Strike Command. , the LGM-30G Minuteman III version is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States and re ...
.
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 ...
*
LGM-30 Minuteman
The LGM-30 Minuteman is an American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in service with the Air Force Global Strike Command. , the LGM-30G Minuteman III version is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States and ...
*
UGM-73 Poseidon
The UGM-73 Poseidon missile was the second US Navy nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) system, powered by a two-stage solid-fuel rocket. It succeeded the UGM-27 Polaris beginning in 1972, bringing major advances in warhea ...
References
External links
Nuclear warheads of the United States
1960s in the United States
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