Mark 90
Illustration — Operation Wigwam test of a Mark 90 "Betty" • Illustration — Mark 90 casing in U.S. Navy Museum The Mark 90 nuclear bomb, given the nickname "Betty", was a Cold War nuclear depth charge, developed by the United States in 1952. It had a length of, a diameter of, and a weight of 1243 lb, and it carried a Mark 7 nuclear warhead with a yield of 32 kilotons. Its purpose was to serve as an anti-submarine weapon for the United States Navy.
Mark 90
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Illustration — Operation Wigwam test of a Mark 90 "Betty" • Illustration — Mark 90 casing in U.S. Navy Museum The Mark 90 nuclear bomb, given the nickname "Betty", was a Cold War nuclear depth charge, developed by the United States in 1952. It had a length of, a diameter of, and a weight of 1243 lb, and it carried a Mark 7 nuclear warhead with a yield of 32 kilotons. Its purpose was to serve as an anti-submarine weapon for the United States Navy.
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Accident
A test of the Mark 90 was conducted in 1955, as Operation Wigwam. A total of about 225 such bombs were produced. All units were withdrawn from service by 1960.
On September 25, 1959, a United States Navy Martin P5M-2 Marlin (BuNo 135540, SG tailcode, '6', of VP-50) was patrolling out of NAS Whidbey Island when it was forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 mi west of the Washington-Oregon border. A Mark 90 depth charge casing was lost and never recovered, but it was not fitted with an active warhead. The ten crew members were rescued by the US Coast Guard, after ten hours in a raft. The press was not notified at the time.
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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.Mark 7 Nuclear Bomb.
- 2.Gibson, James N. Nuclear Weapons of the United States – An Illustrated History. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1996, , , Chapter 12, "Nuclear Anti-Submarine Weapons", p. 214.
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