W70 was a two-stage, thermonuclear warhead that was developed for the MGM-52 Lance missile by the United States. Designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Mod 1 and Mod 2 version of the weapon entered service in 1973, while the enhanced radiation ("neutron bomb") Mod 3 weapon entered service in 1981. The last W70 warhead was dismantled in February 1996.
Key facts
- Weapon.name
- W70 nuclear warhead
- Weapon.image_size
- 300
- Weapon.type
- Nuclear weapon
- Weapon.origin
- United States
- Weapon.is_explosive
- yes
- Weapon.designer
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Weapon.production_date
- W71-1,-2 June 1973 to July 1977W70-3 August 1981 to February 1983
- Weapon.number
- W70-1,-2 900 producedW70-3 380 produced.
- Weapon.variants
- 3
- Weapon.yield
- W70-1,-2 W70-3
via Wikipedia infobox
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Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Design
- See also
- Bibliography
- References
- External links
W70 was a two-stage, thermonuclear warhead that was developed for the MGM-52 Lance missile by the United States. Designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Mod 1 and Mod 2 version of the weapon entered service in 1973, while the enhanced radiation ("neutron bomb") Mod 3 weapon entered service in 1981. The last W70 warhead was dismantled in February 1996.
==Design== Declassified British documents describe the Mod 1 and Mod 2 versions of the weapon as having three yields between , while the Mod 3 enhanced radiation version was estimated to have a yield of The Mod 1 reportedly had more yield options than the Mod 2 warheads. The Mod 3 was reportedly 40% fission and 60% fusion, with two yield options. The weapon weighed , and was long and in diameter.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “W70” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.