W31

The W31 was an American nuclear warhead , which during the Cold War was also stored in large numbers on the territory of the then Federal Republic in order to be mounted there on two different types of rocket in an emergency or to be used as a nuclear mine . The W31 was produced from 1959 to 1989 in different variants, which had roughly the same size and weight: 71-76 cm in diameter and 99-100 cm in length and 408-429 kg in weight. It was a boosted nuclear fission bomb .

Possible uses

Nike Hercules anti-aircraft missile

The Nike Hercules [ ˈnaɪki ˈhərkjuli: s ] was a surface -to-air or surface-to-surface missile that was stationed around US cities during the Cold War , but also at various locations in Europe and Japan. In an emergency, nuclear warheads of the type W31 would have been mounted on most of these missiles in order to destroy high-flying Soviet bombers. A dense belt of Nike firing positions ran through Germany from the North Sea to the Alps, all of which would have been equipped with the W31.

The nuclear warhead for this missile came in three versions: 2, 20 and 40 kilotons. The 2-kT variant was fired against individual bomber targets, the others against bomber squadrons. 2,550 units of this model were produced between 1959 and 1989. The 20 kT version replaced the 40 kT version over time and was intended solely for the Nike-Hercules system. Since there were 70 Nike firing positions in the Federal Republic of Germany at that time (see: The Nike in the Cold War ), for each of which 10 nuclear warheads were kept in a nearby bunker, the number of W31s in Germany for this weapon system alone was 700.

Honest John short-range missile

The Honest John was a US Army surface-to-surface short-range missile with a tactical nuclear warhead, which was available in different types of 5, 10, 20 and 40 kilotons. A total of 1,650 copies of the W31 were built for this purpose. In the Bundeswehr from 1959 to 1982, the 2nd batteries of the rocket artillery battalions of the divisions were equipped with Honest John rocket launchers, which could fire US nuclear warheads of the type W31 as part of the nuclear participation .

Nuclear mine

From 1960 to 1965 around 300 atomic demolition munitions (ADM) with W31 warheads were produced in the USA , many of which were stored in so-called special ammunition storages (SAS) in the Federal Republic of Germany . They were intended to be quickly relocated to their destination in an emergency in order to destroy important routes of the enemy in their own area, such as roads, tunnels, bridges etc. As early as 1965, the W31 / ADM was also used in Germany by the smaller and replaced lighter W45 / MADM.