W30 (nuclear weapon)

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The W30 was an American thermonuclear warhead . It was used as a warhead in surface-to-air missiles ( RIM-8 Talos ). It was also used as a so-called tactical atomic demolition ammunition (TADM)

Development and commissioning

The Talos variants (Mod. 1, Mod. 2 and Mod. 3) were produced from 1959 to 1965 and were in use until 1979. About 300 pieces of this variant were produced. The explosive effect is given as 4.7 to 5 kT TNT.

The TADM warhead was produced from 1961 and decommissioned in 1966. There were two sub-variants of this warhead, the Mod. 4 Y1 with an explosive effect of 0.3 kT TNT and the Mod. 4 Y2 with an effect of 0.5 kT TNT. A total of 300 units of the variants Mod. 3 and Mod. 4 were built.

construction

There are no reliable sources for the exact structure of the warhead. According to, the warhead is a thermonuclear fission explosive device in the so-called Boa arrangement . According to this information, the construction principle of the W52 warhead (200 kT TNT) is also based on the so-called Boa principle .

The W30 and W31 warheads were armed using a simple three-digit digital control. Other American nuclear weapons had or have a large number of sensors. For example, the warheads are only armed shortly before the detonation, after the predetermined trajectory has been validated using pressure, temperature and geographic coordinates.

Technical specifications

  • Length: 122 cm (48 in)
  • Diameter: 56 cm (22 in)
  • Weight: depending on the version 236 kg, 243 kg or 265 kg (438 lb, 450 lb 490 lb)

The non-metric data relate to data from the American military.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://thebulletin.metapress.com/content/26613570165t2883/?p=bd8073a6a670493e95bcea5c5a939b31&pi=14 Beware the old story by Chuck Hansen, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , March / April 2001 pp. 52-55 (vol. 57, no. 02), accessed April 13, 2006
  2. ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/nuke-list.htm
  3. ↑ http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Allbombs.html Allbombs.html
  4. ↑ http://cryptome.org/nuke-fuze.htm Detailed discussion about the detonators and safety devices of the warheads.
  5. ↑ Christopher Reed. Chuck Hansen: Obsessive collector whose files told America's A-bomb secrets The Guardian, April 25, 2003