Examples of Nuclear Weapon Yields
In order of increasing yield (most yield figures are approximate):
| Bomb | Yield | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| kt TNT | TJ | ||
| Davy Crockett | 0.01 | 0.042 | Variable yield tactical nuclear weapon—mass only 23 kg (51 lb), lightest ever deployed by the United States (same warhead as Special Atomic Demolition Munition and GAR-11 Nuclear Falcon missile). |
| Hiroshima's "Little Boy" gravity bomb | 13–18 | 54–75 | Gun type uranium-235 fission bomb (the first of the two nuclear weapons that have been used in warfare). |
| Nagasaki's "Fat Man" gravity bomb | 20–22 | 84–92 | Implosion type plutonium-239 fission bomb (the second of the two nuclear weapons used in warfare). |
| W76 warhead | 100 | 420 | Twelve of these may be in a MIRVed Trident II missile; treaty limited to eight. |
| W87 warhead | 300 | 1,300 | Ten of these were in a MIRVed LGM-118A Peacekeeper. |
| W88 warhead | 475 | 1,990 | Twelve of these may be in a Trident II missile (treaty limited to eight). |
| Ivy King device | 500 | 2,100 | Most powerful pure fission bomb, 60 kg uranium, implosion type. |
| B83 nuclear bomb | variable | Up to 1.2 megatonnes of TNT (5.0 PJ); most powerful US weapon in active service. | |
| B53 nuclear bomb | 9,000 | 38,000 | Was the most powerful US bomb until 2010; it was not in active service for many years before 2010, but during that time, 50 were retained as part of the "Hedge" portion of the Enduring Stockpile until completely dismantled in 2011, a variant of the two-stage B61 is the B53 replacement in the bunker-busting role; the B53 was similar to the W-53 warhead that has been used in the Titan II Missile; decommissioned in 1987. |
| Castle Bravo device | 15,000 | 63,000 | Most powerful US test. |
| EC17/Mk-17, the EC24/Mk-24, and the B41 (Mk-41) | various | Most powerful US weapons ever: 25 megatonnes of TNT (100 PJ); the Mk-17 was also the largest by size and mass: about 20 short tons (18,000 kg); The Mk-41 or B41 had a mass of 4800 kg and yield of 25Mt, this equates to being the highest yield-to-weight weapon ever produced; all were gravity bombs carried by the B-36 bomber (retired by 1957). | |
| The entire Operation Castle nuclear test series | 48,200 | 202,000 | The highest-yielding test series conducted by the US. |
| Tsar Bomba device | 50,000 | 210,000 | USSR, most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated, yield of 50 megatons, (50 million tons of tnt). In its "full" form (i.e. with a depleted uranium tamper instead of one made of lead) it would have been 100 megatonnes of TNT (420 PJ). |
| All nuclear testing as of 1996 | 510,300 | 2,135,000 | Total energy expended during all nuclear testing. |
As a comparison, the blast yield of the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb is 0.011 kt, and that of the Oklahoma City bombing, using a truck-based fertilizer bomb, was 0.002 kt. Most artificial non-nuclear explosions are considerably smaller than even what are considered to be very small nuclear weapons.
Read more about this topic: Nuclear Weapon Yield
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