Thermonuclear · United States · 1954
Mk 17
Mark 17 / Mark 24
The heaviest American nuclear weapon ever deployed: 19 tons, more than 7 m long.
See Mk 17 in the 3D simulator- Yield
- 15 MtPublic estimate
- Energy
- 62.8 PJ
- Mass
- 19 tDocumented
- Dimensions
- 7.52 m · Ø 1.56 mDocumented
- Type
- First mass-produced American H-bomb
- Period
- Cold War
- Status
- Retired
Mk 17 releases about 1,000 times the energy of Little Boy (Hiroshima, 1945).
Key points
- Dropped under a 20 m parachute to give the aircraft time to get away.
- In 1957, a Mk 17 accidentally fell near Albuquerque: only its conventional explosives detonated (7.6 m crater).
History
Rushed into production after the Castle tests, it was soon replaced by much lighter models.
- 1954 Enters service.
- 27 May 1957 Accidental release near Kirtland Air Force Base.
- 1957 Withdrawn from service.
How does it work?
A thermonuclear weapon (“H-bomb”) first uses a fission explosion, which creates the extreme conditions needed to fuse light nuclei (hydrogen isotopes).
Fusion releases a lot of energy per unit of mass and is not limited by a critical mass: this is what makes the megaton range and beyond possible.
One megaton (Mt) is the energy of one million tons of TNT, about 4.2 × 10¹⁵ joules.
Deliberately general explanations: the application provides no design or manufacturing information.
Frequently asked questions
How powerful is Mk 17?
Mk 17 has an estimated yield of 15 Mt of TNT equivalent, about 62.8 PJ of energy.
What is the history of Mk 17?
In service from 1954 to 1957, carried by the B-36 bomber. Rushed into production after the Castle tests, it was soon replaced by much lighter models.
What does the Mk 17 explosion look like?
The Bomb Simulator shows the fireball, shock wave and cloud of Mk 17 at real scale, over Paris, London or New York, with the sources and reliability of each value.
Sources
- Mark 17 nuclear bomb — Wikipedia (overview, to be cross-checked)
Other weapons
- Trinity — 25 kt
- Little Boy — 15 kt
- Fat Man — 21 kt
- RDS-1 — 22 kt
- Hurricane — 25 kt
- RDS-6s — 400 kt
- Gerboise Bleue — 70 kt
- 596 — 22 kt
- Davy Crockett — 20 t
- Ivy Mike — 10.4 Mt
- Castle Bravo — 15 Mt
- RDS-37 — 1.6 Mt
This application is an educational tool. The animations and effect zones are simplified representations meant to illustrate orders of magnitude. They are neither a prediction of the effects of a real weapon nor a military planning tool.