W62

The W62 is an American thermonuclear warhead designed in the late 1960s and manufactured from 1970 to 1976, used on some Minuteman III ICBMs and retired in 2010.

Airmen work on the W62 warheads of an LGM-30G Minuteman III’s Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) system.

The exact dimensions of the W62 are classified, but it fits within the Mark-12 reentry vehicle which is 22 inches in diameter and 72 inches long. The weight of a fully loaded Mark-12 is 800 pounds; the weight of the W62 is stated as 253 lb.

The yield of the W62 is 170 kilotons TNT,[1] which is considerably less than earlier W56's 1.2 megatons.

A total of 1,725 W62 warheads have been produced during its production run. These are now retired, with 610 units in service until 2010 on board 200 Minuteman III ICBMs (3 per missile, plus some spares).

The W62 has been retired because it lacks Enhanced Electrical Isolation, Insensitive High Explosives, a Fire Resistant Pit, a Command Disable System and a Code Management System.[2] It has been replaced in its role as Minuteman warhead by the W78 and, more recently, by the W87 in a non-MIRV configuration.

See also

References
  1. Allbombs.html list of all US nuclear warheads
  2. JASON and Replacement Warheads
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