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W70 Nuclear Weapon

The document discusses the W70 nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the early 1970s. It was used on the MGM-52 Lance missile and about 1250 were built with a variable yield of 1 to 100 kilotons. A modified version, the W70-3, was one of the first battlefield-ready warheads with enhanced radiation and had a lower 1 kt yield.

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3K views2 pages

W70 Nuclear Weapon

The document discusses the W70 nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the early 1970s. It was used on the MGM-52 Lance missile and about 1250 were built with a variable yield of 1 to 100 kilotons. A modified version, the W70-3, was one of the first battlefield-ready warheads with enhanced radiation and had a lower 1 kt yield.

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Gordon Duff
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W70

Types of Nuclear Weapons. carey sublette. Retrieved 2006-04-07.

W70 is the designation for a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the early 1970s. The
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory designed W70
was used on the MGM-52 Lance. About 1250 were built
in total. The warhead had a variable yield of between 1
and 100 kilotons, selectable by the user. The design dates
from 1973.

U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile (June 1990)".


Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved 200907-30.

The W70-3 was a modied version of the W70 and one


of the rst warheads to be battleeld-ready with an enhanced radiation (i.e. neutron bomb) feature. It had
an explosive yield of about 1 kt., was manufactured during 1981-83, and was retired by 1992; 380 were built.
Note that using the explosive yield of a neutron weapon
to measure its destructive power can be deceptive, especially given the W70s variable yield - so-called neutron
bombs only display their unique qualities at lower yields;
at higher yields, the radius of intense heat and blast eects
far outstrips the range that the prompt radiation can reach
through an atmosphere. This eect is exaggerated against
tank crews, who are extremely well protected against heat
and blast, but whose vehicles armour is readily penetrated by energetic neutron radiation.
The inventor of the neutron bomb, Samuel Cohen, has
criticized the description of the W70 as a "neutron
bomb":
the W-70 ... is not even remotely a neutron
bomb. Instead of being the type of weapon that,
in the popular mind, kills people and spares
buildings it is one that both kills and physically
destroys on a massive scale. The W-70 is not
a discriminate weapon, like the neutron bomb
which, incidentally, should be considered a
weapon that kills enemy personnel while sparing the physical fabric of the attacked populace,
and even the populace too.

See also
List of nuclear weapons

External links
Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) - W70.
globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2006-03-11.
1

3 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

3.1

Text

W70 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W70?oldid=624943580 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Fastssion, Rwendland, Ligulem, Sophysduckling, Rowan Moore, Los688, Dual Freq, CmdrObot, Nabokov, Sherbrooke, VoABot II, A. Carty, ClueBot, Addbot, The Bushranger,
Luckas-bot, Rotblats09, El Mayimbe, WikitanvirBot, Mogism and Anonymous: 5

3.2

Images

File:Nagasakibomb.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Nagasakibomb.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/photos/images/ww2-163.jpg National Archives image (208-N-43888) Original
artist: The picture was taken by Charles Levy from one of the B-29 Superfortresses used in the attack.
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007

3.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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