W70

W70 is the designation for a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the early 1970s. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory designed W70 was used on the MGM-52 Lance. About 1250 were built in total. The warhead had a variable yield of between 1 and 100 kilotons, selectable by the user. The design dates from 1973.

The W70-3 was a modified version of the W70 and one of the first warheads to be battlefield-ready with an "enhanced radiation" (neutron bomb) feature. It had an explosive yield of about 1 kt., was manufactured during 1981-83, and was retired by 1992; 380 were built. Note that using the explosive yield of a neutron weapon to measure its destructive power can be deceptive: most of the damage caused by a neutron weapon comes from ionising radiation, not from heat and blast.

The inventor of the neutron bomb, Sam Cohen, has criticized the description of the W70 as a "neutron bomb"::"the W-70 ... is not even remotely a "neutron bomb." Instead of being the type of weapon that, in the popular mind, "kills people and spares buildings" it is one that both kills and physically destroys on a massive scale. The W-70 is not a discriminate weapon, like the neutron bomb — which, incidentally, should be considered a weapon that "kills enemy personnel while sparing the physical fabric of the attacked populace, and even the populace too." [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_29_15/ai_55426724/pg_2]

ee also

*List of nuclear weapons

External links

*cite web| url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/w70.htm| publisher=globalsecurity.org| title=Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) - W70| accessdate=2006-03-11
*cite web| url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html| publisher=carey sublette| title=Types of Nuclear Weapons| accessdate=2006-04-07
*cite web| url=http://www.thebulletin.org/article_nn.php?art_ofn=jun90norris| publisher=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists| title=U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile (June 1990)| accessdate=2006-06-13