W87

The development of the W87 warhead began at Livermore National Laboratory in February 1982 . Serially produced from July 1986 to December 1988 at the Rockefleath Nuclear Plant in Golden, near Denver , Colorado , by Rockwell International , commissioned by the US Atomic Energy Commission . It is assumed that the W87 is in many ways similar to the W88 warhead, despite the fact that the latter was created at the Los Alamos National Laboratory .

The power of the base version of mod.0 of the W87 warhead is 300 kT. In November 1987 , the development of a more powerful version of Mod 1 (supposedly due to the use of more enriched uranium ) with a capacity of 475 kT was started. This warhead was to be used in the monoblock warhead MBM MGM-134A Midgetman . Due to the cessation of rocket development, all work on the Mod 1 option was discontinued in July 1988 . ^[one]

Chronology of development and production

Warhead W87

• 1. Primary starting charge (“Trigger”)
• 2. Secondary charge
• 3. "Pusher body": the capsule body, in the shape of a peanut, directing x-rays from the primary charge to the secondary
• 4. Plastic-filler "body-pusher"
• 5. Tritium capacity booster

• A. Trigger explosive charge
• B. Plutonium-239
• C. Tritium and Deuterium (gas mixture)
• D. Lithium Deuteride-6
• E. Uranium 235 initiator
• F. Compression charge from uranium-235
• G. Uranium-238 Case

The W87 warhead is made according to the two-stage Teller-Ulam scheme. It is located in the Mk-21 combat unit and forms a single whole with it (therefore, the correct designation is W87 / Mk-21 ). The Mk-21 combat unit consists of an aluminum frame coated with a graphite-epoxy composite. The toe of the warhead is made of a carbon-carbon composite. The warhead is located in the center of the warhead.

Safety measures applied on W87 :

• mechanical safety device Mechanical arm / safe device - MSAD ) in the primary charge;
• increased fire safety:
  • the use in the primary charge of explosives with an elevated temperature of detonation;
  • refractory insulation of the primary charge;
  • thermal protection of the plutonium core of the primary charge (the charge is covered with beryllium, protection allows you to withstand heating up to 1000 degrees Celsius for several hours);

The combat unit is equipped with two fuses - contact and remote. The main fuse is a contact fuse. Located in the bow of the warhead. The fuse has a timer function - it fires according to the time delay of a given ANN rocket. Remote - a radio fuse located in the rear of the unit behind the warhead. The radio fuse has 4 antennas and operates in two modes in the S-band (wavelength 15.77-19.35 cm). Undermining Options:

• high altitude air
• mid-height
• low altitude
• near-surface
• superficial (contact)

The first 10 MX missiles with hundreds of W87 warheads took up combat duty at Warren AFB , Wyoming on December 22, 1986. Initial plans included the production of 1,000 W87s — 10 warheads on each of the 100 MX missiles. However, MX missile production was limited to 50 units. Therefore, the production of W87 was stopped after the release of 525 pieces. Some of the warheads were modified by Alt 323. The deployment of missiles was completed in December 1988 ^[1] .

Under START-2, the last of the MX missiles was removed from duty on September 19, 2005, and W87 warheads were placed in storage. Due to the expiration of the operational life of the W62 warheads deployed on the LGM-30G Minuteman-III missiles , it was decided to rearm these missiles on the W87 warheads. Each missile should be armed with only one new warhead. The program is called "Safety Enhanced Reentry Vehicle" (SERV). As part of this program, W87 warheads are being upgraded under the Life Extension Program (LEP). The purpose of this program is to extend the life of the warhead by 30 years, which will support the grouping of missiles LGM-30G Minuteman-III at least until 2030.

The deployment of the first W87 warheads on the LGM-30G Minuteman-III missiles was launched at the Warren Air Base after flight tests in 2005. As of April 2009, the W62 warheads were completely replaced by the W87 . There are 200 warheads on duty. Plans are in place to begin the replacement and W78 warheads. By 2013, it is planned to deploy one W87 warhead on all 300 LGM-30G Minuteman-III missiles at the Warren ( Wyoming ) and Malmstrom ( Malmstrom AFB Montana ) air bases. 150 missiles at the Minot air base ( Eng. Minot AFB , North Dakota ) will continue to be on duty with W78 warheads ^[2] .

The extension program was first carried out at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant in Amarillo , Texas by Mason & Hanger-Silas Mason Co. (which became part of American Ordnance LLC), and then transferred to (KCP) in Kansas City , Kansas , by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies . Also, the National Security Center Y-12 in the suburb of Oak Ridge , Tennessee , operated by the Tennessee Eastman Company, was involved in the work program to extend the operation of the nuclear warhead ^[3] .

• U.S. Nuclear Weapons List

• Nuclearweaponsarchive.org W87 page
• Nuclear weapons site W87 page (translated from nuclearweaponsarchive.org)
• The W87 page on globalsecurity.org