Mark 24 nuclear bomb
Encyclopedia
The Mark 24 nuclear bomb was an American thermonuclear bomb design, based on the third American thermonuclear bomb test, Castle Yankee
. The Mark 24 bomb was tied as the largest weight and size nuclear bomb ever deployed by the United states, with the same size and weight as the Mark 17 nuclear bomb
which used a very similar design concept but unenriched Lithium.
The Castle Yankee thermonuclear test was the first bomb to use enriched Lithium-6 isotope, up to perhaps 40% enrichment. The device tested was called the Runt II design; it was reportedly very similar to the Runt design tested in Castle Bravo
, other than the enrichment level.
Castle Yankee had a demonstrated yield of 13.5 megatons
. The yield for the weaponized Mark 24 was predicted to be 10-15 megatons.
The EC24 bomb was a limited production run of the Castle Yankee test device, with 10 produced and stockpiled through 1954. The EC24 was 61 by 225 inches and weighed 39,600 pounds. The EC24 was a purely free-fall bomb design.
The production model Mark 24 nuclear bomb was 61.4 by 296 inches long, with a weight between 41,000 and 42,000 pounds. It was in service between 1954 and 1956, with a total of 105 units produced. The Mark 24 included a 64 feet (19.5 m) parachute to slow its descent.
Castle Yankee
Castle Yankee was the code name given to one of the tests in the Operation Castle series of American tests of thermonuclear bombs.-Jughead:...
. The Mark 24 bomb was tied as the largest weight and size nuclear bomb ever deployed by the United states, with the same size and weight as the Mark 17 nuclear bomb
Mark 17 nuclear bomb
The Mark 17 and Mark 24 were the first mass-produced hydrogen bombs deployed by the United States. The two differed in their "primary" stages. The MK 17/24 bombs were long, diameter. They weighed 21 tons. The Mark 17 had a yield in the range of 25 megatons TNT equivalent...
which used a very similar design concept but unenriched Lithium.
The Castle Yankee thermonuclear test was the first bomb to use enriched Lithium-6 isotope, up to perhaps 40% enrichment. The device tested was called the Runt II design; it was reportedly very similar to the Runt design tested in Castle Bravo
Castle Bravo
Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first U.S. test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device, detonated on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as the first test of Operation Castle. Castle Bravo was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States ,...
, other than the enrichment level.
Castle Yankee had a demonstrated yield of 13.5 megatons
TNT equivalent
TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...
. The yield for the weaponized Mark 24 was predicted to be 10-15 megatons.
The EC24 bomb was a limited production run of the Castle Yankee test device, with 10 produced and stockpiled through 1954. The EC24 was 61 by 225 inches and weighed 39,600 pounds. The EC24 was a purely free-fall bomb design.
The production model Mark 24 nuclear bomb was 61.4 by 296 inches long, with a weight between 41,000 and 42,000 pounds. It was in service between 1954 and 1956, with a total of 105 units produced. The Mark 24 included a 64 feet (19.5 m) parachute to slow its descent.
See also
- List of nuclear weapons
- Nuclear weapon designNuclear weapon designNuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three basic design types...
- Teller-Ulam designTeller-Ulam designThe Teller–Ulam design is the nuclear weapon design concept used in most of the world's nuclear weapons. It is colloquially referred to as "the secret of the hydrogen bomb" because it employs hydrogen fusion, though in most applications the bulk of its destructive energy comes from uranium fission,...
- Mark 17 nuclear bombMark 17 nuclear bombThe Mark 17 and Mark 24 were the first mass-produced hydrogen bombs deployed by the United States. The two differed in their "primary" stages. The MK 17/24 bombs were long, diameter. They weighed 21 tons. The Mark 17 had a yield in the range of 25 megatons TNT equivalent...
- Castle YankeeCastle YankeeCastle Yankee was the code name given to one of the tests in the Operation Castle series of American tests of thermonuclear bombs.-Jughead:...