W88

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In 1999, information came out implying that in some U.S. designs, the primary (top) is prolate, while the secondary (bottom) is spherical.

The W88 is a United States thermonuclear warhead, with an estimated yield of 475 kt, and is small enough to fit on MIRVed missiles. The Trident II SLBM can be armed with up to 8 W88 warheads (Mark 5) or 8 W76 (100 kt) warheads (Mark 4).

Design revelations

Information about the W88 has implied that it is a variation of the standard Teller-Ulam design for thermonuclear weapons.

In 1999, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News reported that the U.S. W88 nuclear warhead, a small MIRVed warhead used on the Trident II SLBM, had a prolate (egg- or watermelon-shaped) primary (code-named Komodo) and a spherical secondary (code-named Cursa) inside a specially-shaped radiation case (known as the "peanut" for its shape). A story four months later in The New York Times by William Broad reported that in 1995, a supposed double agent from the People's Republic of China delivered information indicating that China knew these details about the W88 warhead as well, supposedly through espionage (this line of investigation eventually resulted in the abortive trial of Wen Ho Lee). If these stories are true, it would indicate a variation of the Teller-Ulam design which would allow for the miniaturization required for small MIRVed warheads. (Stober and Hoffman 2001; Morland 2003; Broad 1999)

The value of an oblate primary lies apparently in the fact that a MIRV warhead is limited by the diameter of the primary — if an oblate primary can be made to work properly, then the MIRV warhead can be made considerably smaller yet still deliver a high-yield explosion — a W88 warhead manages to yield up 475 kt with a physics package 68.9 in (1.75 m) long, with a maximum diameter of 21.8 in (0.55 m), and weighing probably less than 800 lb (360 kg).[link] Smaller warheads can allow a nation to fit more of them onto a single missile, as well as improve in more basic flight properties such as speed, mileage, and range.

The calculations for a nonspherical primary are apparently orders of magnitude harder than for a spherical primary (a spherically symmetric simulation is one dimensional, while a axially symmetric simulation is two dimensional), which would likely be the reason they would be desirable for a country like the People's Republic of China (which already developed its own nuclear and thermonuclear weapons), especially since they were no longer conducting nuclear testing which would provide valuable design information. (Cox 1999)

See also

• W25 - small yield warhead used in AIR-2 Genie air-to-air missile
• W53 - the warhead used on the Titan II ICBM
• W54 - very small yield warhead, one of the smallest warheads built
• B61 - a bomb carried by a variety of aircraft
• W80 - warhead which armed nuclear cruise missiles
• W81 - development of the W61 for the Navy's Standard missile
• W84 - similar development for the Air Force's aborted GLCM missile
• W85 - similar development for the Army's Pershing II missile

References

• William J. Broad, "Spies versus sweat, the debate over China's nuclear advance," New York Times (7 September 1999), p. 1.
• Christopher Cox, chairman, Report of the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China (1999), esp. Ch. 2, "PRC Theft of U.S. Thermonuclear Warhead Design Information". [link]
• Howard Morland, "The holocaust bomb: A question of time" (February 2003), available online at http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/morland.html
• Dan Stober and Ian Hoffman, A convenient spy: Wen Ho Lee and the politics of nuclear espionage (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001). ISBN 0743223780

External links

• [Nuclear weapons archive on the W88]
• [Globalsecurity.org on the W88]
• ["Department of Energy, FBI, and Department of Justice Handling of the Espionage Investigation into the Compromise of Design Information on the W-88 Warhead"] statement by U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee heads.

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