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I'll add comments here as I go through the article. I'm doing a copyedit too; please revert if I make a mess of anything.
I'm done with a first pass; when these are dealt with I'll do one more read through. This is clearly FA quality, with some minor fixes; I'll be supporting at FAC when you take this back there.
I was very interested to read about the neutron production; I've just finished working on radiocarbon dating, where the atmospheric nuclear tests are mentioned because the neutrons generated an enormous amount of carbon-14, known as bomb carbon. Mike Christie ( talk - contribs - library) 11:49, 26 April 2015 (UTC)
Mike Christie, I hope you don't mind the delay here, I wanted to take a break from this and come back with fresh eyes. Let me know! Maury Markowitz ( talk) 14:07, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
I would just like to bring to your attention that at one time in its article, I had included the fact that the W71 warhead is reported(by Robert http://www.Johnstonarchive.net ) to have used a gold tamper/liner. However the most recent editor to that article( User:Crosbiesmith) removed a great deal of information, such as this, that I had added. Have a look at the article edit history to see what I mean, and their rationale for removing the gold mention: "rm. 'gold liner' claims from self-published sources". Is such a rationale legitimate? Moreover there is more than 1 source that corroborates this use of Gold in the W71, Carey Sublette's site( http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq4-4.html ) states: "Gold (Z=79) has been used in at least one weapon design as part of the tamper (or possibly the radiation case) - the W-71 warhead for the Spartan ABM missile. The W-71 used the thermal X-ray flux as its kill mechanism, so it was important for them to escape the weapon with as little hindrance as possible. The choice of gold may have been to tailor the opacity so that the hot X-rays present at the end of the fusion burn could escape without being absorbed. Gold is a good tamper material and has been used in ICF target designs due to its opacity". So, I'm not entirely sure what to do as I'm an IP editor and User:Crosbiesmith is registered. Any assistance would be appreciated. 178.167.208.192 ( talk) 12:12, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
Ahhh, that is a very different issue actually. In the case of Casaba, for instance, the deposition of energy onto the pusher plate causes it to rapidly heat and explosively expand. The mechanical effects of this expansion travel much faster in the metal than outside it, so by carefully shaping the plate you can get the expansion from the entire plate to arrive at the same spot at the same time, while the material around it is sort of "fogging" into a mist. This is precisely the same effect as a conventional shaped charge, although the energy transport is not mechanical, but radiation based (AFAIK).
IF W71 was using some sort of focusing (which I actually doubt, given the role of popping off in the middle of the tube), I suspect it would be of this form. More specifically, they could make the bomb casing thicker in some places and thinner in others, as well as change the materials, such that certain spots on the casing would become x-ray emitting earlier than others. But still, this would result in a pattern degrees across, which might get you a little bit more out of the inverse square law, but not that much.
Excalibur (and that article needs serious work!) is very different. In this case the action is that the flash of x-rays (and lots of other stuff) is essentially used like a large flashlamp. The metal is chosen to have metastable states in the x-ray region, and that means you have to have high-z, just basic physics there. The action is non-mechanical; the flash of light pumps the atoms in the rod which decay to the inversion, which self-lases, exactly like a ruby laser or the lasers in NIF. The action takes place long before the mechanical effects take effect. But I have to note that laser physics is not my strong suit. In any event, this is a real laser, coherant and highly focused, maybe arcseconds across. In this case we're talking about missile-sized dispersion out at hundreds of kilometers, or thousands.
The downside is the laser conversion efficiency. Flashtube lasers get 1 or 2% of the energy back out, and that was expected to be the case here as well. But 1% of a nuclear bomb's x-ray output is still a *lot*, and if you can deliver that 500km away? Very nice. Only problem was that Excalibur just doesn't work. IIRC, CENTURION found a one or two order-of-magnitude difference between O-group's predictions and reality, which is why is suddenly disappeared from news articles circa 1984/85. Maury Markowitz ( talk) 21:37, 16 June 2015 (UTC)
The article currently states 'There are at least five Zeus models mentioned in various sources, A, B, C, S and EX2, the last of which became Spartan'. No source is given for the existence of an EX2 missile designation, nor for the claim that a missile of this designation became the Spartan. I can find a claim that a Zeux 'EX' became Spartan via Google books: [1] I can find no reference to an 'EX2'. I will remove this whole sentence as it unsourced. - Crosbie 08:53, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
So, in the end, all of this this comes down to a single extra letter, a simple typo. Wow. Maury Markowitz ( talk) 23:24, 13 June 2015 (UTC)
The article stated 'The W66 is widely reported as the first neutron bomb, although any differences compared to the W50, other than yield, are unclear.' The only source given was 'Berhow 2005, p. 32.' This can be seen on Google Books: [4] There is no mention of neutron bombs on this page. The word 'neutron' does not appear in this book. This claim failed verification - I have removed it from the article. - Crosbie 09:27, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
A source has been provided, but you dispute it and point to the Cox report. That's fine, but to continue making the claim that no source has been provided is disingenuous. Maury Markowitz ( talk) 10:56, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
The article currently states, "For this to work, the Zeus mounted the W50, a 400 kt enhanced radiation warhead, and had to maneuver within 1 km of the target warhead. Against shielded targets, the warhead would be effective to as little as 800 feet (0.24 km)." The given source is ABM Research and Development at Bell Laboratories, Project History, page 1.1. Page 1.1 of this report does not mention either the W50 warhead, nor the concept of an enhanced radiation warhead. The W50 (nuclear warhead) article says nothing about this being an enhanced radiation warhead. This claim has failed verification. If no reliable source can be provided for this claim, I will remove it from the article. - Crosbie 18:27, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
from the article Nike Hercules I guess that the propellant was solid, it is possible to state if was solid or liquid? thanks. 151.29.72.11 ( talk) 11:28, 29 December 2021 (UTC)
![]() | Nike Zeus has been listed as one of the Warfare good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() | This article is rated GA-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I'll add comments here as I go through the article. I'm doing a copyedit too; please revert if I make a mess of anything.
I'm done with a first pass; when these are dealt with I'll do one more read through. This is clearly FA quality, with some minor fixes; I'll be supporting at FAC when you take this back there.
I was very interested to read about the neutron production; I've just finished working on radiocarbon dating, where the atmospheric nuclear tests are mentioned because the neutrons generated an enormous amount of carbon-14, known as bomb carbon. Mike Christie ( talk - contribs - library) 11:49, 26 April 2015 (UTC)
Mike Christie, I hope you don't mind the delay here, I wanted to take a break from this and come back with fresh eyes. Let me know! Maury Markowitz ( talk) 14:07, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
I would just like to bring to your attention that at one time in its article, I had included the fact that the W71 warhead is reported(by Robert http://www.Johnstonarchive.net ) to have used a gold tamper/liner. However the most recent editor to that article( User:Crosbiesmith) removed a great deal of information, such as this, that I had added. Have a look at the article edit history to see what I mean, and their rationale for removing the gold mention: "rm. 'gold liner' claims from self-published sources". Is such a rationale legitimate? Moreover there is more than 1 source that corroborates this use of Gold in the W71, Carey Sublette's site( http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq4-4.html ) states: "Gold (Z=79) has been used in at least one weapon design as part of the tamper (or possibly the radiation case) - the W-71 warhead for the Spartan ABM missile. The W-71 used the thermal X-ray flux as its kill mechanism, so it was important for them to escape the weapon with as little hindrance as possible. The choice of gold may have been to tailor the opacity so that the hot X-rays present at the end of the fusion burn could escape without being absorbed. Gold is a good tamper material and has been used in ICF target designs due to its opacity". So, I'm not entirely sure what to do as I'm an IP editor and User:Crosbiesmith is registered. Any assistance would be appreciated. 178.167.208.192 ( talk) 12:12, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
Ahhh, that is a very different issue actually. In the case of Casaba, for instance, the deposition of energy onto the pusher plate causes it to rapidly heat and explosively expand. The mechanical effects of this expansion travel much faster in the metal than outside it, so by carefully shaping the plate you can get the expansion from the entire plate to arrive at the same spot at the same time, while the material around it is sort of "fogging" into a mist. This is precisely the same effect as a conventional shaped charge, although the energy transport is not mechanical, but radiation based (AFAIK).
IF W71 was using some sort of focusing (which I actually doubt, given the role of popping off in the middle of the tube), I suspect it would be of this form. More specifically, they could make the bomb casing thicker in some places and thinner in others, as well as change the materials, such that certain spots on the casing would become x-ray emitting earlier than others. But still, this would result in a pattern degrees across, which might get you a little bit more out of the inverse square law, but not that much.
Excalibur (and that article needs serious work!) is very different. In this case the action is that the flash of x-rays (and lots of other stuff) is essentially used like a large flashlamp. The metal is chosen to have metastable states in the x-ray region, and that means you have to have high-z, just basic physics there. The action is non-mechanical; the flash of light pumps the atoms in the rod which decay to the inversion, which self-lases, exactly like a ruby laser or the lasers in NIF. The action takes place long before the mechanical effects take effect. But I have to note that laser physics is not my strong suit. In any event, this is a real laser, coherant and highly focused, maybe arcseconds across. In this case we're talking about missile-sized dispersion out at hundreds of kilometers, or thousands.
The downside is the laser conversion efficiency. Flashtube lasers get 1 or 2% of the energy back out, and that was expected to be the case here as well. But 1% of a nuclear bomb's x-ray output is still a *lot*, and if you can deliver that 500km away? Very nice. Only problem was that Excalibur just doesn't work. IIRC, CENTURION found a one or two order-of-magnitude difference between O-group's predictions and reality, which is why is suddenly disappeared from news articles circa 1984/85. Maury Markowitz ( talk) 21:37, 16 June 2015 (UTC)
The article currently states 'There are at least five Zeus models mentioned in various sources, A, B, C, S and EX2, the last of which became Spartan'. No source is given for the existence of an EX2 missile designation, nor for the claim that a missile of this designation became the Spartan. I can find a claim that a Zeux 'EX' became Spartan via Google books: [1] I can find no reference to an 'EX2'. I will remove this whole sentence as it unsourced. - Crosbie 08:53, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
So, in the end, all of this this comes down to a single extra letter, a simple typo. Wow. Maury Markowitz ( talk) 23:24, 13 June 2015 (UTC)
The article stated 'The W66 is widely reported as the first neutron bomb, although any differences compared to the W50, other than yield, are unclear.' The only source given was 'Berhow 2005, p. 32.' This can be seen on Google Books: [4] There is no mention of neutron bombs on this page. The word 'neutron' does not appear in this book. This claim failed verification - I have removed it from the article. - Crosbie 09:27, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
A source has been provided, but you dispute it and point to the Cox report. That's fine, but to continue making the claim that no source has been provided is disingenuous. Maury Markowitz ( talk) 10:56, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
The article currently states, "For this to work, the Zeus mounted the W50, a 400 kt enhanced radiation warhead, and had to maneuver within 1 km of the target warhead. Against shielded targets, the warhead would be effective to as little as 800 feet (0.24 km)." The given source is ABM Research and Development at Bell Laboratories, Project History, page 1.1. Page 1.1 of this report does not mention either the W50 warhead, nor the concept of an enhanced radiation warhead. The W50 (nuclear warhead) article says nothing about this being an enhanced radiation warhead. This claim has failed verification. If no reliable source can be provided for this claim, I will remove it from the article. - Crosbie 18:27, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
from the article Nike Hercules I guess that the propellant was solid, it is possible to state if was solid or liquid? thanks. 151.29.72.11 ( talk) 11:28, 29 December 2021 (UTC)