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Mk12

  • Designer
    • Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
  • Service
    • 1954 to 1962
  • Type
    • ?
  • Dimension(s)
    • ?
  • Weight(s)
    • B12 / ~1,000lbs
    • W12 / 650lbs
  • Yield(s)
    • ?
  • Bomb
    • B12
  • Warhead
    • W12 – B.O.A.R.
    • W12 – Talos (RIM-8) – U.S. Navy

Designed by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL)5.1, the Mk12 was an externally carried tactical weapon. The W12 was an alternate warhead to the W7 used in the Bombardment Aircraft Rocket (BOAR) and Talos (RIM-8) missiles cancelled November 1955.1.1

The Mk12 entered the stockpile in 1954 and was removed from active service in 19625.1

In 1954, Field Command requested Sandia to delay Joint Task Group activities on the XW-12/TALOS-W due to unavailability of missiles. Later a proposal was made to replace the XW-12 in favor of the XW-30 with the XW-12 project being terminated November 21st 1955 for the XW-30 warhead.2.1

Weighed 1,000lbs3.1

The Mk12 warhead weighed 650lbs4.1

  • k12 training shape (Retrieved from https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/mk12.htm)
  • Mk12 in the background with two technicians removing its tail section from its shipping container on the USS Ranger (CVA-61) aircraft carrier
  • Technicians removing the tail-section container from the Mk12 shipping container
  • Technicians moving a Mk12 with its associated tail-section in a shipping container. Another Mk12 is in the background.
  • What appears to be, from left to right, a Mk6, Mk7, Mk12, and Mk8 stored within an aircraft carrier special weapons magazine
  • An FJ-4B carrying a Mk12 training shape over China Lake (Retrieved from https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Mark_12_nuclear_bomb)
  • Mk12 training shape loaded to the centerline position of an A-4B Skyhawk (Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/45800749@N07/35676394381/sizes/o/)
  1. Hansen, C. (1988). US Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History. Crown Publishers Inc. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/16404602
    1. p.106
  2. Information Research Division 3434. (1967). History of the Mk12 Weapon. Los Alamos National Laboratory. https://osf.io/46sfd/
    1. p.8 (PDF Page)
  3. Francis, S. (1996). WARHEAD POLITICS: Livermore and the Competitive System of Nuclear Weapon Design [Doctoral, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/10589
    1. p.74
  4. Germain, L. S. (1991). The Evolution of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Design: Trinity to King (Historical Report LA-11403; p. 28). Los Alamos National Laboratory. https://osf.io/46sfd/
    1. p.22 (PDF Page)
  5. Cochran, T. B., Arkin, W. M., & Hoenig, M. M. (1984). Nuclear Weapons Databook Volume 1: U.S. Nuclear Forces and Capabilities (Vol. 1). Ballinger Publishing Company. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/566100883
    1. p.29 (PDF Page)