W69

The W69 was a United States nuclear warhead used in AGM-69 SRAM Short-Range Attack Missiles.

It was designed in the early 1970s and entered the U.S. stockpile in 1972. It remained in service until 1992, with the last units being retired in 1996. About 1,500 were produced.

By 1999, all the warhead's various parts had been dismantled. The high explosives were removed from around the plutonium pits at the Pantex Plant and the pits were put into secure storage. Non-nuclear components were taken to the Savannah River Site and the National Security Campus. The canned subassemblies were moved to Y-12 National Security Complex, where recovery of the uranium began in 2012 and was completed in 2016.[1]

The W69 warhead was one of many derived from the B61 nuclear bomb design.

Specifications

The W69 had a diameter of 15 inches (380 mm) and was 30 inches (760 mm) long. It weighed 275 pounds (125 kg). It had a yield of between 170-200 kilotons. [2]

gollark: Now CPU is not high, but load average is and stuff isn't working.
gollark: As far as I can tell from graphs™, load average was weirdly high from 4am or so, when I wasn't on it or doing anything, and from 12:08 it spiked to 15, along with CPU going really high.
gollark: Oh, now top isn't loading.
gollark: But UPTIME!
gollark: ```(2/8) Reloading system manager configuration...Failed to reload daemon: Transport endpoint is not connectederror: command failed to execute correctly```???

See also

References
  1. Y-12 National Security Complex Completes W69 Dismantlement at NNSA press release. Accessed February 28, 2016
  2. List of all US Nuclear Weapons at The Nuclear Weapon Archive. Accessed July 10, 2007
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