B46 nuclear bomb
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The B46 nuclear bomb (or Mk-46) was an American high-yield
The B46 design roughly weighed 8,120 pounds (3,680 kg) and was about 37 inches (94 cm) in diameter. It was intended to have a 9 megaton yield.
The design history of the B46 apparently derives most immediately from the older, larger Mark 21 nuclear bomb design, which was a design derivative of the Shrimp design which was the first US solid fueled thermonuclear bomb test fired in the Castle Bravo test.
The B46 was test fired in
The B46 design concepts were taken forwards into a new weapon design in 1959, the TX-53, which was redesignated the B53 nuclear bomb and W53 warhead. 50 B53 bombs were in US inactive reserves from 1997 to 2011, though none were actively deployed during that period.
Towards the end of 1955, consideration was given to using the physics package of the TX-46 aerial bomb as a warhead for the
See also
- B53 nuclear bomb
- Mark 21 nuclear bomb
- Castle Bravo
- Operation Hardtack I tests including Butternut, Yellowwood, and Oak
- List of nuclear weapons
References
- ^ "The B-53 (Mk-53) Bomb". Nuclear Weapon Archive. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-9791915-0-3.
External links
- B53 design and design history including B46 at [nuclearweaponarchive.org]
- Allbombs.html list of all US nuclear weapon designs at [nuclearweaponarchive.org]