W85 (nuclear warhead)

A DOE drawing of the W85 warhead.
TypeNuclear weapon
Place of originUnited States
Production history
DesignerLos Alamos National Laboratory
No. built215
Specifications
MassLess than 591 pounds (268 kg)[1]
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

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 kilotonnes of TNT (1, 21, 42 or 335 TJ).[2][3]

  1. ^ Pershing II Weapon System TM 9-1425-386-10-1 (PDF). United States Army. June 1986. p. 5-1. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020.
  2. ^ "The B61 Bomb". www.nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  3. ^ "List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons". www.nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.