The B43 was a United States air-dropped variable yield thermonuclear weapon used by a wide variety of fighter bomber and bomber aircraft. The B43 was developed from 1956 by Los Alamos National Laboratory, entering production in 1959. It entered service in April 1961. Total production was 2,000 weapons, ending in 1965.

Feb 9, 2016 · On December 5, 1965, for example, while underway from operations off Vietnam to Yokosuka in Japan, an A-4E aircraft loaded with one B43 nuclear weapon rolled overboard from the Number 2 Elevator. The aircraft sank with the pilot and the bomb in 2,700 fathoms (4,940 meters) of water.

The BDU-6/E training aid represents the size, weight, and ballistics of a Mk-43 thermonuclear bomb. The Mk-43, later re-designated B43, was developed in 1956 as a tactical weapon with an explosive yield measured in the megaton range.

American nuclear weapons of all types – bombs, warheads, shells, and others – are numbered in the same sequence starting with the Mark 1 and (as of March 2006) ending with the W91 (which was cancelled prior to introduction into service). All designs which were formally intended to be weapons at some point received a number designation.

Almost all attack jets—A-1 Skyraiders, A-6 Intruders, A-7 Corsair IIs, F/A-18 Hornets, and others—had a nuclear mission, with pilots trained to “toss-bomb” nuclear weapons at their targets. Navy aircraft carried the B43, B57, and B61 nuclear gravity bombs.

The B43 was a United States air-dropped variable yield thermonuclear weapon used by a wide variety of fighter bomber and bomber aircraft. The B43 was developed from 1956 by Los Alamos National Laboratory, entering production in 1959. It entered service in April 1961. Total production was 2,000 weapons, ending in 1965.

The B43 nuclear bomb could be dropped by a variety of platforms, including the A-4 Skyhawk. The same basic design could produce a variety of yields, from 70 kilotons to 1 megaton. The weapon lost on 5 December 1965 was set to the highest yield.

The B43 was a United States air-dropped variable yield thermonuclear weapon used by a wide variety of fighter bomber and bomber aircraft. The B43 was developed from 1956 by Los Alamos National Laboratory, entering production in 1959. It entered service in April 1961. Total production was 2,000 weapons, ending in 1965.

Several nuclear bombs are avail­able for naval aircraft: the B43, which entered service in 1961 and has several configurations with a maximum explo­sive force of about one megaton; the B57, available since 1963, in depth bomb con­figurations up to about ten kilotons; and the B61, which came into service in 1968 and has yields up to some 350 ...

02 B43 Thermonuclear Bomb. B43 Thermonuclear Bomb: Length: 15 feet, 8 inches Diameter: 1 foot, 61 inches Weight: 2,100lbs Weight of Fissionable Plutonium: Explosive Yield: 70 Kilotons to 1 Megaton Configuration: Plutonium implosion bomb