W38 (nuclear warhead)

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The W38 was an American

. It was first built in 1961 and was in service from 1961 to 1965. 70 were deployed on Titan I missiles and 110 on Atlas missiles. It used the Avco Mark 4 reentry vehicle.

The W38 was 32 inches (81 cm) in diameter and 82.5 inches (2 m) long. It weighed 3,080 pounds (1,400 kg) and had a design yield of 3.75 megatons with an airburst or contact fuze.^[1]

The W38 was the first thermonuclear ICBM warhead developed by the UCRL (University of California Radiation Laboratory), which is now known as the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The W38 was superseded by the

payload.

See also

• List of nuclear weapons

References

External links

• List of all US nuclear weapons