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Appendix 3 WEAPON DEVELOPMENT MILESTONES Warheads United States U.S.S.R./Russia Warheads in stockpile 7,650 active, 8,200 active, (2003) 3,000 reserve 10,000 reserve or awaiting or awaiting disassembly disassembly Peak number of 32,500/1967 45,000/1986 warheads/ year Total number of war- 70,000 55,000 heads built, years 1945–1992 1949–2003 Atomic bomb Leslie R. Groves, Igor V. Kurchatov, developers J. Robert Yuli B. Khariton, Oppenheimer Boris L. Vannikov, Avraami P. Zaveniagin 1 6 5 continued Hydrogen bomb Stanislaw Ulam, Andrei Sakharov, developers Edward Teller, Yuli B. Khariton, Richard Garwin Yakov B. Zeldovich First operational Oct. 31, 1959 Jan. 20, 1960 ICBM Atlas D SS-6 Sapwood First SSN enters January 1955 August 1958 service, vessel name Nautilus November First SSBN patrol Nov. 15, 1960 1968 Navaga/ with Polaris-type G. Washington, Yankee, SLBM, vessel, Polaris A1 SS-N-6 Serb missile name First MIRVed missile Aug. 19, 1970 Dec. 25, 1974 deployed Minuteman III SS-18 Satan; April 26, 1975 SS-19 Stiletto First warhead B-61 Mod-11, 1996 unknown deployed without live nuclear test Testing milestones Number of nuclear 1,030/1,125 715/969 tests/detonations First fission test, type, July 16, 1945 Aug. 29, 1949 yield plutonium, 21 kt plutonium, 22 kt First test of boosted May 8, 1951 Aug. 12, 1953 Joe 4, fission weapon, yield Item, 46 kt RDS-6c, 400 kt First two-stage thermo- Oct. 31, 1952 Nov. 22, 1955 nuclear test, yield Mike, 10.4 Mt RDS-37, 1.6 Mt Months from first 87 75 fission bomb to first multistage thermonuclear bomb 1 6 6 / w e a p o n d e v e l o p m e n t m i l e s t o n e s Testing milestones (continued) First nuclear airdrop, Aug. 6, 1946 Oct. 18, 1951 aircraft used, yield B-29, 15 kt Tu-4, 42 kt Atmospheric tests, 215 219 including underwater Total Mts expended 141/38 247/38 atmospheric/ underground Largest atmospheric Feb. 28, 1954 Oct. 30, 1961 test, yield Bravo, 15 Mt 50 Mt Last atmospheric test Nov. 4, 1962 Dec. 25, 1962 First underground test July 26,1957 Oct. 11, 1961 Largest underground Nov. 6, 1971 Oct. 27, 1973 test, yield 5 Mt 2.8–4 Mt Last test Sept. 23, 1992 Oct. 24, 1990 Major test sites, Nevada (901), Semipalatinsk (456), (number of tests) Enewetak (43), Novaya Zemlya Bikini (23), (130) Christmas Island (24) First computer- 2001, 12 teraflops unknown simulated test White computer at LLNL, fully coupled primary and secondary explosion a p p e n d i x 3 / 1 6 7 continued Nuclear infrastructure Assembly and Pantex, near Avangard, Sarov disassembly Amarillo, Texas (Arzamas-16), plants Lesnoy (Sverdlovsk -45), Trekhgorny (Zlatoust-36), Zarechny (Penza-19) Source: Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, “NRDC Nuclear Notebook, Nuclear Pursuits,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September/October 2003. 1 6 8 / w e a p o n d e v e l o p m e n t m i l e s t o n e s ...

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