Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "W38" nuclear warhead – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The W38 was an American thermonuclear warhead used in the early to mid-1960s as a warhead for Atlas E and F, and LGM-25 Titan I ICBMs. 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.

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The W38 was superseded by the Titan II missile family with a W53 warhead and 9 megaton payload.

See also

• List of nuclear weapons

References

1. Chuck Hansen (2007). Swords of Armageddon. Vol. VI. p. 262-265. ISBN 978-0-9791915-6-5.
2. History of the Mark 38 Warhead (Report). Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA). January 1968.
3. "List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons".

External links

• List of all US nuclear weapons

This United States military history article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This article related to nuclear weaponry is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Nuclear warheads of the United States
• Military equipment introduced in the 1960s
• United States military history stubs
• Nuclear weapon stubs