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The Mark 8 nuclear bomb was an American
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* {{United States nuclear devices Mark 08 Gun-type nuclear bombs Nuclear bombs of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s
The Mark 8 nuclear bomb was an American 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 ...
, designed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, which was in service from 1952 to 1957.
Description
The Mark 8 was a gun-type nuclear bomb, which rapidly assembles severalcritical mass
In nuclear engineering, critical mass is the minimum mass of the fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction in a particular setup. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specific ...
es of fissile nuclear material by firing a fissile projectile or "bullet" over and around a fissile "target", using a system which closely resembles a medium-sized cannon barrel and propellant.
The Mark 8 was an early earth-penetrating bomb (see nuclear bunker buster
A nuclear bunker buster, also known as an earth-penetrating weapon (EPW), is the nuclear equivalent of the conventional bunker buster. The non-nuclear component of the weapon is designed to penetrate soil, rock, or concrete to deliver a nuclea ...
), intended to dig into the earth some distance prior to detonating. According to one government source, the Mark 8 could penetrate of reinforced concrete, of hard sand, of clay, or of hardened armor-plate steel.
The Mark 8 was in diameter across its body and long depending on submodel. It weighed , and had a yield of 25-30 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 det ...
s.
A total of 40 Mark 8 bombs were produced.
The Mark 8 was succeeded by an improved variant, the Mark 11 nuclear bomb. Both the Mark 8 and the Mark 11 could use the same fissile material "gun cores."Specifically, they both used what was listed in a later report as the 991 and 992 "Gun Cores." The 991 and 992 cores could also be used in the W19 nuclear artillery shell, and the 992 core could be used in the W33 artillery shell.
Variants
The Mark 8 was considered as a cratering warhead for theSSM-N-8 Regulus
The SSM-N-8A Regulus, also known as the Regulus I and RGM-6, is a nuclear-capable turbojet-powered second generation cruise missile operated by the US Navy between 1955 and 1964. Its development was an outgrowth of U.S. Navy tests conducted wi ...
cruise missile. This W8 variant was cancelled in 1955.
A lighter Mark 8 variant, the Mark 10 nuclear bomb, was developed as a lightweight airburst (surface target) bomb. The Mark 10 project was cancelled prior to introduction into service, replaced by the much more fissile-material-efficient Mark 12 nuclear bomb implosion design.
See also
*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 a ...
* Mark 1 Little Boy nuclear bomb
References
External links
Allbombs.html
list of all US nuclear warheads a
nuclearweaponarchive.org
* {{United States nuclear devices Mark 08 Gun-type nuclear bombs Nuclear bombs of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s