A TECHNICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS

THEIR DESIGN, OPERATION, DELIVERY, AND DEPLOYMENT SECOND EDITION

De: Dr. PETER A. GOETZ

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Since 1945, the United States Armed Forces have fielded 70 different nuclear and thermonuclear devices on approximately 120 weapon systems. During this period, the manufacturing operations of the Manhattan Project, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Department of Energy produced about 70,500 nuclear bombs and warheads. The Air Force and the Navy currently deploy eight types of thermonuclear device on six weapon systems and the Department of Defense maintains about 2,500 nuclear bombs and warheads (tactical and strategic) on active duty. It keeps approximately the same number in reserve. Nuclear publications prior to this book have concentrated mostly on specific topics such as weapon physics, testing, warheads, delivery systems, deployments, or doctrine. The current offering is intended to provide “one-stop shopping” with a broad treatment of the subject. In providing a wide scope, it was necessary to sacrifice a certain amount of depth in order to produce a volume of manageable size. Like the First Edition of this book, the Second Edition has an introductory section that places the American nuclear arsenal into its historical context and provides a basic technical background. Included are Chapters on weapon design, the military-industrial complex, and stockpile logistics. These are followed by a discussion intended to clearly convey what would have happened if nuclear weapons were ever put to use. The introduction closes with a review of early warning and targeting, the initial deployments of nuclear forces, the evolution of strategic doctrine during the period of the Cold War, non-proliferation, and the current management of the US Stockpile. The updated body of this book examines American nuclear weapons and delivery systems in a rough chronological order. It treats some weapons individually, whereas it presents others in functional or family groupings. It also combines development histories with engineering descriptions to illustrate the performance characteristics of the weapons and the design challenges that faced their developers. Basic data about weapon operation, delivery systems, and deployments are also included. The final part of this book looks at the weapons and delivery systems being created for the future Nuclear Triad. These include the B-21A Raider stealth bomber, the GBSD ICBM, which will be a more capable version of Minuteman III, and the Columbia SSBN, which will replace the Ohio Class. It also reviews updated warheads like the W80-4 that will arm the new Long-Range Stand-Off Missile and the W93 that may replace Trident II’s W76-1. An Afterword discusses the implications of failing to negotiate a new Arms Limitation Treaty. The units of measurement in this book are mixed. Rather than create confusion by converting metric and imperial dimensions and rounding off the results, the book restates measurements in their original units. Where possible, the Author has verified the measurements and specifications of weapon systems from museum displays and declassified documents obtained from military sources and contractors. Even these show a degree of variation in specifications and statistics. In some cases, the Author has made an educated guess regarding which of several conflicting specifications is correct, and in other cases, he provides a range of estimates. All measurements and statistics are therefore approximate. To improve the flow of the narrative, the Author has minimized the use of qualifying adverbs and adjectives. For the convenience of the Reader, a number of appendices supply a best estimate of the technical specifications and production statistics for selected weapons. The book also contains a table that outlines the effects of nuclear explosions over a wide range of yields. This book now (May 2022) contains a new Chapter about the Ripple Secondary, which was to be upgraded into 35-megaton warheads and 60-megaton bombs. It also contains a new section on the proposed B-52J.