W62

W62
Airmen work on the W62 warheads of an LGM-30G Minuteman III’s Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) system.
TypeNuclear warhead
Service history
In service1970–2010
Used byUnited States
Production history
DesignerLawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Designed1963–1968
ProducedMarch 1970 to June 1976
No. built1725
Specifications
Mass253 pounds (115 kg)

Detonation
mechanism
Contact, airburst
Blast yield170 kilotonnes of TNT (710 TJ)
Drawing of the Mark 12 re-entry vehicle that houses the W62 warhead.

The W62 was an American thermonuclear warhead designed in the 1960s and manufactured from March 1970 to June 1976. Used on some Minuteman III ICBMs, it was partially replaced by the W78 starting in December 1979, and fully replaced by W87 warheads removed from MX Peacekeeper missiles and retired in 2010.[1][2]

  1. ^ Sublette, Carey (1 September 2001). "The W-78 Warhead". Nuclear Weapons Archive. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  2. ^ Sublette, Carey (9 January 2007). "The W62 Warhead". Nuclear Weapon Archive. Retrieved 22 January 2022.