The Mark 21 nuclear bomb was a United States thermonuclear gravity bomb first produced in 1955. It was based on the TX 21 "Shrimp" prototype that had been detonated during the Castle Bravo test in March 1954.

Apr 18, 2024 · Sandia and the Kansas City National Security Campus completed a crucial weapons component development milestone, prior to full rate production. The Mark 21 Replacement Fuze interfaces with the W87-0 warhead for deployment onto the Minuteman III and, eventually, the Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.

The W87 is an American thermonuclear missile warhead formerly deployed on the LGM-118A Peacekeeper ("MX") ICBM. 50 MX missiles were built, each carrying up to 10 W87 warheads in multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV), and were deployed from 1986 to 2005.

Mk21A is an integrated reentry vehicle (RV) being designed to deploy the W87-1 warhead for the U.S. Air Force’s future Sentinel ICBM. It is an adaptation of the Mk21 reentry vehicle. The Lockheed Martin Mk21A design is maturing using advanced Digital Engineering tools, including advanced modeling and simulation.

Oct 31, 2023 · WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin has been awarded nearly $1 billion to develop a new reentry vehicle for the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Pentagon announced Monday...

Sep 5, 2024 · A Minuteman III missile lit up the sky over Vandenberg Space Force Base on June 4, a final demonstration of the operational effectiveness of the Mk21 Fuze.

Larger warhead W87-1 (W87 Mod. 1) does not exceed the stage of the development. The return module, the Mk-21 was developed by AVCO Systems division, and is also known as the ABRV (Advance Ballistic Re-entry Vehicle).

Sandia is tasked with designing, fabricating and testing reentry vehicles for development flight tests in support of the Arming & Fuzing Assembly (AFA) modernization program. The flight test vehicle design is verified to meet requirements through component, subassembly and system-level ground testing. This is done to ensure.

Jun 19, 2024 · In October 2023, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center awarded Lockheed Martin a $996 million contract for the development of the Mk21A. These reentry vehicles will eventually be armed with nuclear warheads and integrated into the Sentinel ICBM.

Oct 31, 2023 · The Sentinel ground-based intercontinental ballistic system in development now to be deployed later this decade will incorporate a “low technical risk and affordable”, modified Mk21 reentry vehicle.