W89
The W89 was an American thermonuclear warhead design intended for use on the AGM-131 SRAM II air to ground nuclear missile and the UUM-125 Sea Lance anti-submarine missile. What was to become the W89 design was awarded to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the mid-1980s. It entered Phase 2A technical definition and cost study in November 1986. It entered Phase 3 development engineering and was assigned the numerical designation W89 in January 1988. The W89 design was a diameter by long weapon, with a weight of and yield of 200 kilotons. The design was canceled in September 1991 along with the SRAM II missile, prior to production of any units, though some test devices may have been manufactured. Reused plutonium pits According to one source, the plutonium cores (technically known as pits) of the W89 warheads were planned to be reused from existing W68 warhead pits, which were surplus at the time. Reliable Replacement Warhead link Lawrence Livermore engineers ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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W89 And W91 Warhead 2
The W89 was an American thermonuclear warhead design intended for use on the AGM-131 SRAM II air to ground nuclear missile and the UUM-125 Sea Lance anti-submarine missile. What was to become the W89 design was awarded to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the mid-1980s. It entered Phase 2A technical definition and cost study in November 1986. It entered Phase 3 development engineering and was assigned the numerical designation W89 in January 1988. The W89 design was a diameter by long weapon, with a weight of and yield of 200 kilotons. The design was canceled in September 1991 along with the SRAM II missile, prior to production of any units, though some test devices may have been manufactured. Reused plutonium pits According to one source, the plutonium cores (technically known as pits) of the W89 warheads were planned to be reused from existing W68 warhead pits, which were surplus at the time. Reliable Replacement Warhead link Lawrence Livermore engineers h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Reliable Replacement Warhead
The Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) was a proposed new American nuclear warhead design and bomb family that was intended to be simple, reliable and to provide a long-lasting, low-maintenance future nuclear force for the United States. Initiated by the United States Congress in 2004, it became a centerpiece of the plans of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to remake the nuclear weapons complex. In 2008, Congress denied funding for the program, and in 2009 the Obama administration called for work on the program to cease. Background During the Cold War, the United States, in an effort to achieve and maintain an advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, invested large amounts of money and technical resources into nuclear weapons design, testing, and maintenance. Many of the weapons designed required high upkeep costs, justified primarily by their Cold War context and the specific and technically sophisticated applications they were created for. Wi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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AGM-131 SRAM II
The AGM-131 SRAM II ("Short-Range Attack Missile") was a nuclear-tipped air-to-surface missile intended as a replacement for the AGM-69 SRAM. The solid-fueled missile was to be dropped from a B-1B Lancer, carry the W89 warhead and have a range of 400 km. However, the program was cancelled by President George H. W. Bush for geopolitical reasons just as the first flight-test missile was delivered. Development The mission of the SRAM family is to deliver the warhead to the target without the need for the penetrating bomber to directly overfly the target. The SRAM family of weapons had an extremely small radar signature and were near-impossible to counter. SRAM ensured the airborne leg of the US nuclear triad (the others being land-based ICBMs and SLBM) and was the penetrating air launched strategic nuclear weapon for the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit. In 1977, the USAF planned to develop an upgrade of the SRAM for the forthcoming B-1A bomber as AGM-69B SRAM B. When the B-1A was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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UUM-125 Sea Lance
The UUM-125 Sea Lance, known early in development as the ''Common ASW Standoff Weapon'', was to be an American standoff anti-submarine missile, initially intended to carry a W89 thermonuclear warhead. It was conceived in 1980 as a successor to both the UUM-44 SUBROC and RUR-5 ASROC anti-submarine missiles. The Sea Lance was to be available in two versions, known as UUM-125A and RUM-125A. The former would be a submarine-launched version, the latter surface-launched. It was cancelled in 1990 as its importance was obviated by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Design and development In 1982, Boeing was awarded the main contract to develop the system, named the Sea Lance. By the following year, it had become apparent that developing two different versions of the missile was too ambitious, and further development of the RUM-125 was suspended. The RUM-139, a vertical-launch model of the ASROC, was developed as a stopgap weapon in this role. The Sea Lance was to be housed inside a w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Plutonium Pit
In nuclear weapon design, the pit is the core of an implosion nuclear weapon, consisting of fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it. Early pits were spherical, while most modern pits are prolate spheroidal. Some weapons tested during the 1950s used pits made with uranium-235 alone, or as a composite with plutonium. All-plutonium pits are the smallest in diameter and have been the standard since the early 1960s. The pit is named after the hard core found in stonefruit such as peaches and apricots. Designs The pits of the first nuclear weapons were solid, with an ''urchin'' neutron initiator in their center. The Gadget and Fat Man used pits made of 6.2 kg of solid hot pressed plutonium-gallium alloy (at 400 °C and 200 MPa in steel dies – and ) half-spheres of diameter, with a internal cavity for the initiator. The Gadget's pit was electroplated with 0.13 mm of silver because of plutonium's susceptibility to corrosi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Nuclear Weapons
This is a list of nuclear weapons listed according to country of origin, and then by type within the states. The United States, Russia, China and India are known to possess a nuclear triad, being capable to deliver nuclear weapons by land, sea and air. United States American nuclear weapons of all types – bombs, warheads, shells, and others – are numbered in the same sequence starting with the Mark 1 and () ending with the W91 (which was cancelled prior to introduction into service). All designs which were formally intended to be weapons at some point received a number designation. Pure test units which were experiments (and not intended to be weapons) are not numbered in this sequence. Early weapons were very large and could only be used as free fall bombs. These were known by "Mark" designators, like the Mark 4 which was a development of the Fat Man weapon. As weapons became more sophisticated they also became much smaller and lighter, allowing them to be used in many ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thermonuclear Bomb
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 lower mass, or a combination of these benefits. Characteristics of nuclear fusion reactions make possible the use of non-fissile depleted uranium as the weapon's main fuel, thus allowing more efficient use of scarce fissile material. Its multi-stage design is distinct from the usage of fusion in simpler boosted fission weapons. The first full-scale thermonuclear test (Ivy Mike) was carried out by the United States in 1952, and the concept has since been employed by at least the five recognized nuclear-weapon states and UNSC permanent members: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, and France. The design of all thermonuclear weapons is believed to be the ''Teller–Ulam configuration'', in which a fission bomb primary stag ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now is sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered privately by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb during the Cold War. It later became autonomous in 1971 and was designated a national laboratory in 1981. Lawrence Livermore Lab is primarily funded by the United States Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy and it is managed Privately held company, privately and operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (a Public-private partnerships in the United States, partnership of the University of California, Bechtel, BW ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kiloton
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be (). It is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a tonne, metric ton (1,000 kilograms) of trinitrotoluene (TNT). In other words, for each gram of TNT exploded, (or 4184 joules) of energy are released. This convention intends to compare the destructiveness of an event with that of conventional explosive materials, of which TNT is a typical example, although other conventional explosives such as dynamite contain more energy. A related concept is the physical quantity TNT-equivalent mass (or mass of TNT equivalent), expressed in the ordinary unit of mass, units of mass and its multiples: kilogram (kg), megagram (Mg) or tonne (t), etc. Kiloton and megaton The "kiloton (of TNT equivalent)" is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 Metric prefix#List of SI prefixes, terajoules (). A kil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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National Nuclear Security Administration
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a United States federal agency responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the United States Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the United States and abroad. Established by the United States Congress in 2000, NNSA is a semiautonomous agency within the United States Department of Energy. History The National Nuclear Security Administration was created by congressional action in 1999, in the wake of the Wen Ho Lee spy scandal and other allegations that lax administration by the Department of Energy had resulted in the loss of U.S. nuclear secrets to China. Originally proposed to be an independent agency, it was inst ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Insensitive High Explosive
'Insensitivity' (sensi'tivitē) refers to a lack of sensitivity for other's feelings. It may also refer to: * "Insensitive" (song), a 1995 song by Canadian singer Jann Arden * ''Insensitive'' (House), an episode of the TV series ''House'' * Culturally insensitive See also * Insensibility (other) " Insensibility" is a poem written by Wilfred Owen during the First World War which explores the effect of warfare on soldiers. Insensibility may also refer to: * Insensibility (intelligence), a lack of understanding, reason, wit, or sense * In ... * Senseless (other) * {{disambig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vanadium
Vanadium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer (passivation (chemistry), passivation) somewhat stabilizes the free metal against further oxidation. Spain, Spanish-Mexico, Mexican scientist Andrés Manuel del Río discovered compounds of vanadium in 1801 by analyzing a new lead-bearing mineral he called "brown lead". Though he initially presumed its qualities were due to the presence of a new element, he was later erroneously convinced by French chemist Hippolyte Victor Collet-Descotils that the element was just chromium. Then in 1830, Nils Gabriel Sefström generated chlorides of vanadium, thus proving there was a new element, and named it "vanadium" after the Scandinavian goddess of beauty and fertility, Vanadís (Freyja). The name was based on the wide range of colors fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |