W85 (nuclear weapon)

The W85 was a United States thermonuclear warhead . It had a variable explosive force between 5 and 80 kilotons of TNT .

General

The W85 warhead was developed in the early 1970s as a tactical explosive device for the MGM-31A Pershing IA missile - up to this point in time it was armed with a 400 kt warhead ( W50 ), which due to its high explosive power for tactical use was unsuitable. The Pershing II was in 1983 with a W85- MARV equipped -Sprengkopf. After the Pershing missiles were scrapped in the 1990s, the 120 remaining W85 warheads were built into B61 bombs .

Technical specifications

The W85 warhead was built in the shape of a cylinder and had a diameter of 33 cm and a length of 110 cm. The warhead weighed 400 kg. Its explosive power was adjustable between 5 and 80 kilotons of TNT.

Cross section of the W85 warhead

See also

• B61 (nuclear weapon) - Today the basis for most of the US tactical nuclear weapons .
• W88 (nuclear weapon) - Trident missile warhead .

Web links

• http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Allbombs.html
• http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/B61.html
• http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/b61.htm
• The B61 family of bombs

Individual evidence

1. ^ Otfried Nassauer & Gerhard Piper: Nuclear weapons modernization in Europe. The project B61-12. In: bits.de. BITS - Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security, August 1, 2012, accessed on September 11, 2018 .