U.S. thermonuclear weapons program

E93778

The U.S. thermonuclear weapons program was the Cold War-era American effort to design, test, and deploy hydrogen bombs and other advanced nuclear weapons, fundamentally shaping global nuclear strategy and arms races.


Statements (51)
Predicate Object
instanceOf military research and development program
nuclear weapons program
administeredBy United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Department of Defense
associatedWithPolicy flexible response
massive retaliation
country United States
developedWeapon B41 nuclear bomb
B53 nuclear bomb NERFINISHED
B83 nuclear bomb NERFINISHED
Mark 17 thermonuclear bomb
Teller–Ulam design
W47 warhead
W76 warhead NERFINISHED
W78 warhead NERFINISHED
W87 warhead NERFINISHED
W88 warhead
era Cold War
focusesOn hydrogen bombs
thermonuclear weapons
influenced NATO nuclear strategy
U.S. ballistic missile submarines
U.S. strategic bomber force
global nuclear arms race
intercontinental ballistic missile development
keyFigure Edward Teller
Ernest Lawrence NERFINISHED
Hans Bethe NERFINISHED
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Lewis Strauss
Stanislaw Ulam NERFINISHED
motivatedBy Soviet thermonuclear weapons program
partOf U.S. nuclear weapons program
relatedTreaty Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Partial Test Ban Treaty
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
researchInstitution Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory NERFINISHED
Los Alamos National Laboratory NERFINISHED
Sandia National Laboratories NERFINISHED
significantEvent Ivy Mike test
significantEventDate 1952-11-01
startPeriod late 1940s
strategicRole mutually assured destruction
nuclear deterrence
second-strike capability
subjectOfDebate civilian control of nuclear weapons
moral implications of thermonuclear war
testSite Bikini Atoll NERFINISHED
Enewetak Atoll NERFINISHED
Nevada Test Site

Referenced by (3)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Edward Teller
influenced
US–UK MDA ("United States nuclear weapons programme")
relatedTo
Enewetak Atoll ("Operation Greenhouse")
testSeriesConducted

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