Thermonuclear · USSR · 1955
RDS-37
RDS-37 (Joe-19)
The first Soviet two-stage H-bomb, dropped from an aircraft.
See RDS-37 in the 3D simulator- Yield
- 1.6 MtDocumented
- Energy
- 6.69 PJ
- Type
- First Soviet two-stage thermonuclear device
- Period
- Cold War
- Status
- Single test
RDS-37 releases about 110 times the energy of Little Boy (Hiroshima, 1945).
Key points
- The first Soviet thermonuclear weapon dropped from an aircraft, like an operational bomb.
History
Three years after Ivy Mike, the USSR caught up with the United States with a weapon that could be dropped directly. Its yield was halved as a precaution.
- 1954 Design of the two-stage scheme in the USSR.
- 22 November 1955 RDS-37 test.
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 RDS-37?
RDS-37 has an estimated yield of 1.6 Mt of TNT equivalent, about 6.69 PJ of energy.
What is the history of RDS-37?
Single test, on 22 November 1955, at Semipalatinsk. Three years after Ivy Mike, the USSR caught up with the United States with a weapon that could be dropped directly. Its yield was halved as a precaution.
What does the RDS-37 explosion look like?
The Bomb Simulator shows the fireball, shock wave and cloud of RDS-37 at real scale, over Paris, London or New York, with the sources and reliability of each value.
Sources
- RDS-37 — 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
- Mk 17 — 15 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.