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W70 is the designation for a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 in the early 1970s. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California is a scientific research laboratory founded by the University of California in 1952....
 designed W70 was used on the MGM-52 Lance
MGM-52 Lance

The MGM-52 Lance was a mobile field artillery tactical surface-to-surface missile system used to provide both W70 and conventional fire support to the United States Army....
. About 1250 were built in total. The warhead had a variable yield
Variable yield

Variable yield, or dial-a-yield, an option available on most modern nuclear weapons, allows the operator to specify a weapon's Nuclear weapon yield, or explosive power, allowing a single design to be used in different situations....
 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" (i.e.






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W70 is the designation for a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 in the early 1970s. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California is a scientific research laboratory founded by the University of California in 1952....
 designed W70 was used on the MGM-52 Lance
MGM-52 Lance

The MGM-52 Lance was a mobile field artillery tactical surface-to-surface missile system used to provide both W70 and conventional fire support to the United States Army....
. About 1250 were built in total. The warhead had a variable yield
Variable yield

Variable yield, or dial-a-yield, an option available on most modern nuclear weapons, allows the operator to specify a weapon's Nuclear weapon yield, or explosive power, allowing a single design to be used in different situations....
 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" (i.e. neutron bomb
Neutron bomb

A neutron bomb, technically referred to as an enhanced radiation weapon , is a type of tactical nuclear weapon formerly built mainly by the United States specifically to release a large portion of its energy as energetic neutron radiation....
) 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 injuries inflicted by a neutron weapon are caused by its intense burst of 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."


See also

  • List of nuclear weapons
    List of nuclear weapons

    This is a list of nuclear weapons listed according to country of origin, and then by type within the states....


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