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The Mark-12
The complete Mark-12 bomb was in diameter, long, and weighed . It had a yield of .
allbombs.html list at nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices Cold War aerial bombs of the United States Nuclear bombs of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s
nuclear bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...
was a lightweight nuclear bomb designed and manufactured by the United States which was built starting in 1954 and which saw service from then until 1962.
The Mark-12 was notable for being significantly smaller in both size and weight compared to prior implosion-type nuclear weapons. For example, the overall diameter was only , compared to the immediately prior Mark-7 which had a diameter, and the volume of the implosion assembly was only 40% the size of the Mark-7's.
There was a planned W-12 warhead variant which would have been used with the RIM-8 Talos missile, but it was cancelled prior to introduction into service.
Specifications
The complete Mark-12 bomb was in diameter, long, and weighed . It had a yield of .
Features
The Mark-12 has been speculated to have been the first deployed nuclear weapon to have usedberyllium
Beryllium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, hard, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with ...
as a reflector-tamper inside the implosion assembly (see nuclear weapon design
Nuclear weapons design are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types:
# Pure fission weapons are the simplest, least technically de ...
). It is believed to have used a spherical implosion assembly, levitated pit, and 92-point detonation.
In popular culture
Though the weapon went out of service in 1962, it resurfaced in a fictional role inTom Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...
's 1991 book '' The Sum of All Fears'' and the 2002 film, where the plot included an Israeli copy of the Mark-12 being lost by accident in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...
in southern Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
near the Golan Heights
The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...
, and then recovered by a terrorist organization.
See also
*Nuclear weapon design
Nuclear weapons design are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types:
# Pure fission weapons are the simplest, least technically de ...
* Mark 7 nuclear bomb
* '' The Sum of All Fears''
* '' The Sum of All Fears (film)''
References
External links
allbombs.html list at nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices Cold War aerial bombs of the United States Nuclear bombs of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s