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 kt.[1][2]

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
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 kiloton 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 — by this time 400 kt 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 use the lower yield W85 warhead. The warhead was derived from the B61 Mod 3 and utilised the same pit in the primary stage of the warhead.[3]

After the Pershing missiles were scrapped, all of the W85 warheads produced were modified into B61 Mod 10 bombs[4][5] 215 W85 warheads were manufactured.[6]

References
  1. "The B61 Bomb". www.nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  2. "List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons". www.nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  3. 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.
  4. "The B61 Bomb". www.nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  5. Pike, John. "B61". www.globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 2010-04-17. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  6. 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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