W85

The W85 was a thermonuclear warhead developed by the United States of America to arm the Pershing II missile. It was a variable yield device with a selectable yield of 0.3, 5, 10 or 80 kilotonnes of TNT (1, 21, 42 or 335 TJ).[2][3]

Not to be confused with the Chinese W85 heavy machine gun.
A DOE drawing of the W85 warhead.
TypeNuclear weapon
Place of originUnited States
Production history
DesignerLos Alamos National Laboratory
No. built215
Specifications
MassLess than 591 pounds (268 kg)[1]
Blast yield0.3, 5, 10 or 80 kt.
W85 warhead on display at the Nuclear Weapons Instructional Museum, Kirtland Air Force Base.
Airburst/surface burst thermonuclear warhead for Pershing II

Overview

The Pershing Ia missile was armed with a 400 kilotonnes of TNT (1,700 TJ) W50 warhead. By the early 1970s, it was clear that this was far too large to allow the missile to be used as a tactical nuclear weapon—at the time, 400 kilotons was larger than many strategic warheads. The Pershing II had a high-accuracy maneuverable reentry vehicle (MARV) equipped with a radar terminal guidance system, which allowed it to use the lower-yield W85 warhead. This warhead was derived from the B61 Mod 3 and utilized the same pit in the primary stage of the warhead,[4] but it has also been described as having a nuclear design similar to that of the B61-4.[5] The total weight of the Pershing II warhead section was 591 pounds (268 kg), which included the reentry vehicle.[6]

After the Pershing missiles were scrapped, all of the W85 warheads produced were modified into B61 Mod 10 bombs.[7][8] 215 W85 warheads were manufactured.[9]

References
  1. Pershing II Weapon System TM 9-1425-386-10-1 (PDF). United States Army. June 1986. p. 5-1. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020.
  2. "The B61 Bomb". www.nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  3. "List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons". www.nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  4. Jill C Fahrenholtz (September 1997). Development of an Automated Pit Packaging System for Pantex (PDF) (Report). Sandia National Labs. p. 15. doi:10.2172/534478. S2CID 107183716. SAND 97-2163. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-02-15. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  5. Sandia Weapon Review: Nuclear Weapon Characteristics Handbook (PDF) (Report). Sandia National Labs. September 1990. p. 79. SAND90-1238.
  6. Pershing II Weapon System, p. 5-1.
  7. "The B61 Bomb". www.nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  8. Pike, John. "B61". www.globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 2010-04-17. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  9. Kristensen, Hans; Norris, Robert (27 November 2015). "The B61 family of nuclear bombs". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 70 (3): 79–84. doi:10.1177/0096340214531546. S2CID 146744069.
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