Tag: w69
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Mercury: The Secret Sauce of Yield Control?
A number of years ago I was discussing with another researcher the concept of dial-a-yield (DAY) weapons (variable yield weapons) using “doors” between the primary and secondary stage to control yield. The basic idea being that when closed, no x-rays can flow to the secondary and therefore no secondary yield is produced. Figure 1 —…
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Warhead Unicorns: Photos of the Elusive W69?
There are a number of US nuclear warheads that even long after they were retired, we still do not have public images of. Some examples of weapons that actually entered service include the W50 (Pershing 1 SRBM), the W52 (Sergeant tactical missile), W66 (Sprint terminal ABM missile) and W69 (SRAM air-to-surface missile). The list gets…
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Cougar — The Primary of the B61 Bomb
The codenames for US nuclear devices are difficult to track. Usually, the primary and secondary stages have separate codenames and generally they are classified when associated with a specific weapon, but in some instances, they have been declassified and in others they have slipped through the cracks during declassification. Hansen in Swords of Armageddon provides…
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