The W19, also called Katie, was an American
nuclear artillery
Nuclear artillery is a subset of limited-nuclear weapon yield, yield tactical nuclear weapons, in particular those weapons that are launched from the ground at battlefield targets. Nuclear artillery is commonly associated with shell (projectile ...
shell, derived from the earlier
W9 shell. The W19 was fired from a special howitzer. It was introduced in 1955 and retired in 1963.
Specifications
The W19 was in diameter, long, and weighed . It had a yield of 15–20
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 and was like its predecessor the W9, a
gun-type nuclear weapon.
Variants
W23
The W19 nuclear system was adapted into a nuclear artillery shell for the US Navy's
16-inch (406 mm) main battery found on the
''Iowa''-class battleships, the W23. Production of the W23 began in 1956 and they were in service until 1962, with a total of 50 units being produced.
The W23 was 16 inches (406 mm) in diameter and long, with a weight given variously as in reference sources. As with the W19, yield was 15–20 kilotons.
References
See also
*
Nuclear artillery
Nuclear artillery is a subset of limited-nuclear weapon yield, yield tactical nuclear weapons, in particular those weapons that are launched from the ground at battlefield targets. Nuclear artillery is commonly associated with shell (projectile ...
*
List of nuclear weapons
*
W9
External links
Allbombs.html webpage listing all US nuclear weapons, at nuclearweaponarchive.org
{{United States nuclear devices
Nuclear warheads of the United States
Gun-type nuclear bombs
Nuclear artillery
Military equipment introduced in the 1950s