Strategic nuclear weapon

Fat Man was a strategic nuclear weapon dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki during the final stages of World War II. It was the second and last (as of October 5, 2024) nuclear weapon to be used in combat. The nuclear strike killed an estimated 35,000–40,000 people outright, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese civilian factory workers, 2,000 Korean slave laborers, and 150 Japanese combatants.

A strategic nuclear weapon (SNW) refers to a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on targets often in settled territory far from the battlefield as part of a strategic plan, such as military bases, military command centers, arms industries, transportation, economic, and energy infrastructure, and countervalue targets such areas such as cities and towns.[1] It is in contrast to a tactical nuclear weapon, which is designed for use in battle as part of an attack with and often near friendly conventional forces, possibly on contested friendly territory. As of 2024, strategic nuclear weapons have been used twice in the 1945 United States bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

  1. ^ "Strategic Air Command Declassifies Nuclear Target List from 1950s".