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W-59 Minuteman I vs. W-76 - Comparison of sizes
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W-59 Minuteman I
W-76

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W-59 Minuteman I
W-76
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W-59 Minuteman I

W-59 Minuteman I
W-59 Minuteman I
Blast Radius Blast Radius7.03km
Fireball Radius Fireball Radius 0.970km
Height Height16.3m
Kilotons Kilotons1000kt
Radiation Radius Radiation Radiuskm
Weight Weight250kg

The W59 was an American thermonuclear warhead used on some Minuteman I ICBM missiles from 1962 to 1969, and planned to be used on the cancelled GAM-87 Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile. Modified to use a less-sensitive high explosive in the primary, the design formed the basis for the British WE.177, used by both the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. The W59 was 16.3 inches in diameter and 47.8 inches long, and it weighed 550 pounds (250 kg). It had a design yield of 1 megaton, with a yield-to-weight ratio of 4 kiloton per kilogram. A total of 150 W59 warheads were produced during its lifetime. The W59 was one of five nuclear weapon designs identified by researcher Chuck Hansen as using the common design Tsetse primary or first fission bomb stage.



Hansen's research indicates that the Tsetse primary was used in the US B43 nuclear bomb, W44 nuclear warhead, W50 nuclear warhead, B57 nuclear bomb, and W59. Historical evidence indicates that these weapons shared a reliability problem, which Hansen attributes to miscalculation of the reaction cross section of tritium in fusion reactions. The weapons were not tested as extensively as some prior models due to a mid-1960s nuclear test moratorium, and the reliability problem was discovered and fixed after the moratorium ended. This problem was apparently shared by the Python primary designs.

Source: Wikipedia
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W-76

W-76
W-76
Blast Radius Blast Radius3.260km
Fireball Radius Fireball Radius 0.380km
Height Heightm
Kilotons Kilotons100kt
Radiation Radius Radiation Radius1.110km
Weight Weight164kg

The W76 is a United States thermonuclear warhead, designed for use on the UGM-96 Trident I sea-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and subsequently moved to the UGM-133 Trident II as Trident I was phased out of service. The first variant, the W76 mod 0 (W76-0) was manufactured from 1978 to 1987, and was gradually replaced by the W76 mod 1 (W76-1) between 2008 and 2018, completely replacing the Mod 0 in the active stockpile.



In 2018 it was announced that some Mod 1 warheads would be converted to a new low-yield W76 mod 2 (W76-2) version. The first Mod 2 warheads were deployed in late 2019.

Source: Wikipedia

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