WE.177
Sign in to saveThe WE.177, originally styled as WE 177, and sometimes simply as WE177, was a series of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons with which the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) were equipped. It was the primary air-dropped nuclear weapon in the United Kingdom from the late 1960s into the 1990s.
Key facts
- Weapon.name
- WE.177
- Weapon.image
- File:WE177 training nuclear bomb at Explosion Museum.jpg
- Weapon.image_size
- 300px
- Weapon.alt
- A mostly green coloured bomb around 3 metres long, marked with the word "training" and with 4 fins at the rear
- Weapon.caption
- WE.177 nuclear bomb (training example) at Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower
- Weapon.origin
- United Kingdom
- Weapon.type
- Free-fall gravity nuclear bomb
- Weapon.is_explosive
- y
- Weapon.is_UK
- y
- Weapon.service
- September 1966–1998
- Weapon.used_by
- Royal Navy and Royal Air Force
- Weapon.wars
- Cold War
- Weapon.designer
- Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE), Aldermaston
- Weapon.manufacturer
- Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE), Aldermaston
- Weapon.unit_cost
- unknown
- Weapon.number
- ~319
- Weapon.variants
- WE.177A, WE.177B, WE.177C
- Weapon.weight
- WE.177A: ,WE.177B and WE.177C: ,
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
16 sectionsContents
- History
- Deployment and usage
- Versions
- WE.177A
- WE.177B
- WE.177C
- Further development proposals
- Falklands War
- Retirement
- Preserved examples
- See also
- References
- Citations
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
The WE.177, originally styled as WE 177, and sometimes simply as WE177, was a series of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons with which the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) were equipped. It was the primary air-dropped nuclear weapon in the United Kingdom from the late 1960s into the 1990s.
The underlying design was based on the US W59, which the UK had gained as part of their involvement in the GAM-87 Skybolt program. The RAF was not happy with the primary stage of the W59, which was potentially subject to accidental detonation when subject to mechanical shocks. Air Ministry Operational Requirement OR.1177 was issued for a new design using a less sensitive explosive, which was undertaken at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment as "Cleo". When Skybolt was cancelled, the UK gained access to the UGM-27 Polaris missile and its W58 warhead, but they continued development of Cleo as a tactical weapon to replace Red Beard. A later requirement for a much smaller tactical and anti-submarine weapon for Navy use was filled by using the new primary as a boosted fission weapon.