The W59 was an American thermonuclear warhead used on some Minuteman I ICBM missiles from 1962 to 1969, and planned to be used on the cancelled GAM-87 Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile. A British development of the system using a new primary became the WE.177, which was widely deployed as an air-dropped weapon into the 1990s.
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, W59 is referenced by 110 other articles, and connects out to nuclear weapon, RUR-5 ASROC and W88.
It sits within the topics Military equipment introduced in the 1960s and Nuclear warheads of the United States.
Its subject is documented across 8 Wikipedia language editions.
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- History
- Minuteman application
- Skybolt application
- Design
- See also
- Notes
- References
The W59 was an American thermonuclear warhead used on some Minuteman I ICBM missiles from 1962 to 1969, and planned to be used on the cancelled GAM-87 Skybolt air-launched ballistic missile. A British development of the system using a new primary became the WE.177, which was widely deployed as an air-dropped weapon into the 1990s.
==History== ===Minuteman application=== Development of the Minuteman I ICBM was authorized in February 1958 and by March, the study of possible warhead for the new ICBM was completed. In April, the XW-56 warhead designed by Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) was approved for development. This program required considerable effort and was accompanied by funding issues.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “W59” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.