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W-59 Minuteman I vs. w-78 - Comparison of sizes
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W-59 Minuteman I
w-78

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W-59 Minuteman I
w-78
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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-78

w-78
w-78
Blast Radius Blast Radius4950km
Fireball Radius Fireball Radius 0.630km
Height Height21,3m
Kilotons Kilotons350kt
Radiation Radius Radiation Radiuskm

The W78 thermonuclear warhead is the warhead used on most of the United States LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), along with the MK-12A reentry vehicle which carried the warhead. Minuteman IIIs initially deployed with the older W62 warhead; the W78 was deployed starting in December 1979 onto 300 missiles, three warheads per missile. Declassified records indicate a total of 1,083 W78s were produced. The W78 was designed at Los Alamos National Laboratory starting in 1974.



The design is thought to combine the secondary (fusion) stage design of older ICBM warheads such as the W50 with a more modern primary stage (see Teller-Ulam design for more details). The W78 has a publicly announced yield of 335–350 kilotons of TNT (1.40–1.46 PJ).Dimensions of the W78 are unknown, but it fits within the MK-12A reentry vehicle, which is conically shaped, 21.3 inches in diameter at its base and 71.3 inches long. The W78 is estimated to weigh 700–800 pounds (317–363 kg).

Source: Wikipedia

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