Mark 5 nuclear bomb
Illustration — Mark 5 nuclear bomb, side view. • Illustration — The Mark 5 bomb displaying open doors at front are for insertion of nuclear core • Illustration — View looking into the nose of a Mark 5, where the fissile pit and final explosive charge segment would be inserted. The Mark 5 nuclear bomb and W5 nuclear warhead were a common core American nuclear weapon design, designed in the early 1950s and which saw service from 1952 to 1963.
Also recorded as Mark 5 · W5
Mark 5 nuclear bomb
Federal Government of the United States · [1] · Public domain
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- aerial bomb · nuclear weapon
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- United States
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Illustration — Mark 5 nuclear bomb, side view. • Illustration — The Mark 5 bomb displaying open doors at front are for insertion of nuclear core • Illustration — View looking into the nose of a Mark 5, where the fissile pit and final explosive charge segment would be inserted. The Mark 5 nuclear bomb and W5 nuclear warhead were a common core American nuclear weapon design, designed in the early 1950s and which saw service from 1952 to 1963.
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History
History
The Mark 5 was in service from 1952 to 1963. The W5 saw service from 1954 to 1963. Approximately 72 Mark 5 weapons were supplied for delivery by Royal Air Force bombers but under US control, under the auspices of Project E. A Mark 5 was used as the primary fission trigger used in Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device in history. A total of 140 Mark-5 bombs were produced.
Nose cavity open and visible on US Mark 5 nuclear bomb. This weapon used in-flight-insertion of the fissionable core, requiring that explosive components be removable on one side to insert the core.
US Atomic Energy Comission · via Scott Carson, @scottcarson1
Mark5NuclearBomb
USDE · Trinity Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie
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- United States
Description
The Mark 5 design was the first production American nuclear weapon which, with a diameter of 39 in, was significantly smaller than the 60 in diameter implosion system of the 1945 Fat Man nuclear bomb design. The Mark 5 design used a 92-point implosion system and a composite uranium/plutonium fissile material core or pit. The Mark 5 core and W5 warhead were 39 in in diameter and 76 in long; the total Mark 5 bomb had a diameter of 44 in and was 129-132 in long. The different versions of Mark 5 weighed 3025-3175 lb; the W5 versions weighed 2,405-2,650 lb. The Mark 5 and W5 were pure fission weapons. There were at least four basic models of core design used, capable of compatibility with at least eight different core "capsule" designs (which themselves were compatible with many other weapons of the era). Sub-variants with yields of 6, 16, 55, 60, 100, and 120 kilotons have been reported. As with many early US nuclear weapon designs, the fissile material or pit could be kept separately from the bomb and assembled into it during flight. This technology is known as In Flight Insertion (IFI). The Mark 5 had an automatic IFI mechanism which could insert the pit into the center of the explosive assembly from a storage position in the bomb nose.
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Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons, July 1945 through September 1977. E-2. February 1978.
- 2.Sandia Corporation. A Survey of Nuclear Weapon Safety Problems and the Possibilities for Increasing Safety in Bomb and Warhead Design. DOE Opennet. 52. February 1959.
- 3.The Stationery Office. RAF Nuclear Deterrent Forces. 262–263. 1996. 0-11-772833-0.
- 4.Hansen, Chuck. Swords of Armageddon. III. 1995.
- 5.Mk.5 / W5.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 1
- Leitch, Andy. "V-Force Arsenal: Weapons for the Valiant, Victor and Vulcan". Air Enthusiast No. 107, September/October 2003. pp. 52–59.
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