Kinglet was a boosted fission primary used in several American
thermonuclear weapon
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 lowe ...
s.
The W55 warhead for the
UUM-44 SUBROC anti-submarine missile and the
W58 warhead for
Polaris A-3 were designed to use Kinglet, while the
W47 warhead for Polaris A-1/A-2 were retrofitted with Kinglet to overcome the technical issues with the
Robin primary the W47 was initially deployed with.
Allegedly, only the W47Y2 was converted to the Mod 3 design using Kinglet.
Design
The Kinglet device was approximately in diameter, in length and weighed approximately .
The device was of the two-point design. Two-point devices only require two detonators to fire the whole device, compared to earlier nuclear weapons that required tens of detonators.
Characteristics of the warheads that used Kinglet are:
See also
*
List of nuclear weapons
*
Teller-Ulam design
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 lowe ...
*
Tsetse primary
*
Python primary
Notes
References
Bibliography
Beware the old storyby Chuck Hansen, ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'', March/April 2001 pp. 52-55 (vol. 57, no. 02)
*http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons?Allbombs.html
*The History of the UK. Strategic Deterrent: The Chevaline Programme. Published:2004 by the Royal Aeronautical Society, London.
{{United States nuclear devices
Nuclear bombs of the United States