W71
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The W-71 nuclear warhead was a US thermonuclear warhead developed and deployed for use on the LIM-49A Spartan Anti-ballistic missile defense system briefly deployed by the US in the 1970s. The W-71 was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
The W-71 warhead had a yield of around 5 megatons. The warhead package was roughly a cylinder, 42 inches in diameter and 101 inches long. The complete warhead weighed around 2,850 pounds.
One W-71 prototype was successfully tested at full yield in 1971, in Project CANNIKIN, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. The test was conducted at 11:00am local time November 6, 1971.
30 units were produced in 1974 and 1975. The weapons went into service, but were then taken right back out of service in 1975 and the warheads stored until 1992 when they were dismantled.
External links
- [US nuclear weapons list at nuclearweaponarchive.org]
- [Spartan warhead image from nuclearweaponarchive.org]
- [W-71 warhead information including at Globalsecurity.org]
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