Red Snow

This article is about the nuclear weapon Red Snow. For other uses, see Red Snow (disambiguation).

Red Snow was a British thermonuclear weapon,[1] based on the US W28 (then called Mark 28) design used in the B28 thermonuclear bomb and AGM-28 Hound Dog missile.[2] The US W28 had yields of 70, 350, 1,100 and 1,450 kilotonnes of TNT (0.29, 1.46, 4.60 and 6.07 PJ)[3] and while Red Snow yields are still classified, declassified British documents indicate the existence of "kiloton Red Snow" and "megaton Red Snow" variants of the weapon, suggesting similar yield options, while other sources have suggested a yield of approximately 1 megatonne of TNT (4.2 PJ).[4][5]

  1. ^ "Yellow Sun MK.2 Enters Service". Atomic Weapons Establishment. September 2007. Archived from the original on 7 June 2007.
  2. ^ "Defence Committee on Nuclear Requirements 1959–1963". Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. National Archive. 17 July 1962. p. 1. TNA AVIA 65/1771 E24. Archived from the original on 28 May 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2012. Red Snow is the British version of the U.S. Mk.28, which has been tested by the American Authorities. It follows that all current British nuclear weapons are based on tested designs.
  3. ^ Sublette, Carey (12 June 2020). "Complete List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons". Nuclear weapon archive. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  4. ^ Weapons Department Atomic Warheads Production Committee, Papers & Minutes (Report). UK Atomic Energy Authority. 1964. p. 63. TNA AB 16/4675. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference NukeInfoWE177 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).