Nuclear weapon that can be transported in a suitcase
This article is about miniature atomic bombs. For portable devices used to authorize the launch of nuclear weapons, see Nuclear briefcase.
H-912 transport container for Mk-54 SADM
A suitcase nuclear device (also suitcase nuke, suitcase bomb, backpack nuke, snuke, mini-nuke, and pocket nuke) is a tactical nuclear weapon that is portable enough that it could use a suitcase as its delivery method.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons small enough to be portable in specially-designed backpacks during the 1950s and 1960s.[1][2]
Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union have ever made public the existence or development of weapons small enough to fit into a normal-sized suitcase or briefcase.[3] The W48 however, does fit the criteria of small, easily disguised, and portable. Its explosive yield was extremely small for a nuclear weapon.[4][5]
In the mid-1970s, debate shifted from the possibility of developing such a device for the military to concerns over its possible use in nuclear terrorism.[6] The concept became a staple of the spy thriller genre in the later Cold War era.[7]
^Woolf, Amy F (August 10, 2009), Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons(PDF), FAS, archived (PDF) from the original on May 25, 2006, retrieved June 4, 2016
^Shrader, K. "Suitcase nukes closer to fiction than reality". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
^"Complete List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons". Nuclear Weapon Archive.
^Gsponer, Andre (15 October 2018). "The B61-based 'Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator': Clever retrofit or headway towards fourth-generation nuclear weapons?". arXiv:physics/0510052v1.
^"Preventing Suitcase Warfare: Loren Eiseley, the great University of Pennsylvania author and anthropologist, recently predicted a future of 'suitcase warfare,' in which terrorists would utilize miniaturized atomic weapons." Forbes 115 (1975), p. 115.
^Used e.g. in The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth (1984). After the end of the Cold War frequently invoked as a trope of the period, e.g. in the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell video game (2002) North [from] Calcutta (2009) by Duane Evans concerns the planned use of a suitcase bomb in the India-Pakistan conflict, cited as a realistic depiction of this type of threat by H. B. Peake, "The Intelligence Officer's Bookshelf", Studies in Intelligence, Journal of the American Intelligence Professional, Unclassified Extracts from Studies in Intelligence 53.3, Central Intelligence Agency, Government Printing Office (September 2009), p. 44.
and 21 Related for: Suitcase nuclear device information
A suitcasenucleardevice (also suitcase nuke, suitcase bomb, backpack nuke, snuke, mini-nuke, and pocket nuke) is a tactical nuclear weapon that is portable...
small Soviet-era nucleardevices. The term suitcase nuke is generally used to describe any type of small, man-portable nucleardevice although there is...
used to fire nuclear missiles is stolen from the President of France. Letters of last resort – (United Kingdom) Suitcasenucleardevice Le mystère des...
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission...
munitions – ADMs – also known as backpack or suitcase nukes; an example is the W48 artillery shell, the smallest nuclear weapon ever built or deployed. All such...
A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations...
warhead for RT-2UTTH Topol M / SS-27 ICBM Various tactical nuclear weapons including "suitcase bombs" (RA-115 or RA-115-01 as examples) Blue Steel Yellow...
Some definitions of nuclear terrorism include the sabotage of a nuclear facility and/or the detonation of a radiological device, colloquially termed...
of a nuclear holocaust lessened. In September 1997, the former secretary of the Russian Security Council Alexander Lebed claimed 100 "suitcase sized"...
Light Teams W54 Warhead Medium Atomic Demolition Munition Suitcasenucleardevice List of nuclear weapons Semiannual Historical Report, Activities for the...
for improvised devices: improvised explosive devices (IED) and improvised nucleardevice (IND). These definitions address the Nuclear and Explosive in...
and Russian generals; Alexei Yablokov (Russian and the danger of suitcasenucleardevices, and Alexander Lebed ; Armimex and a June 1997 commercial plot;...
explosive device. IEDs are divided into three basic categories by basic size and delivery. Type 76, IEDs are hand-carried parcel or suitcase bombs, type...
Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. Several methods...
of the hidden caches could contain portable tactical nuclear weapons known as RA-115 "suitcase bombs". Such bombs have been prepared to assassinate US...
However even on this basis, comparing the actual energy yields of a large nucleardevice and an explosion of TNT can be slightly inaccurate. Small TNT explosions...
security finds that there is a nucleardevice in Hillary Clinton's vagina. This was referred to as a "Snuke" (a suitcase nuke designed to fit in a woman's...
large (deep) attaché case. Backpack Messenger bag Nuclear briefcase Red box (government) Suitcase Tablet case Bain, Mark (25 March 2015). "The story...
Global Information