"10 Most Powerful Nuclear Bombs in the World - Largest

One of the most terrifying weapons at the disposal of military forces around the world today is the nuclear bomb

No other weapon can cause destruction and damage on such a large scale, and few images are as terrifying as that of a mushroom cloud

How big are the largest nuclear bombs stored around the world?

While the length and weight of the bombs are certainly impressive, the true value of a nuclear bomb is its detonation power, or “yield,” which is measured in megatons of TNT

Let’s learn more about the 10 biggest nuclear bombs in the world today

The Mark 14 was the first staged solid propellant hydrogen bomb and was an experimental design

Only five units were produced, several of which were detonated in the Castle Union test

The Mark 14 detonation device was nicknamed the “alarm clock” However, it had no connection with the earlier design of the same name proposed by theoretical physicist Edward Teller

While this bomb is commonly referred to as the Mark 16, it is more formally known as the TX-16/EC-16 because it was only built in the Experimental/Emergency Capability variants

The TX-16 was the only thermonuclear bomb in use that used cryogenic liquid deuterium fusion fuel

This bomb was eventually decommissioned and replaced by a solid fuel thermonuclear weapon

The TX-16 was simply an armed improvement of the famous “Ivy Mike” design, which used the same fusion fuel

Classified as a high-capacity bunker busting thermonuclear weapon, the B53 was designed with the power to destroy entire cities and dig out bunkers (hence its nickname)

The B53 was the oldest and longest-lived nuclear weapon available to the United States

Length: 150 inches

A more advanced version of the earlier Mark 21 nuclear bomb, the extremely powerful Mark 36 nuclear bomb was designed to give aircraft better time to reach a safe distance from the blast before detonation

These bombs produced such a powerful impact that they were designed with two parachutes to slow their movement

The Mk 21s on which these bombs were based were developed and improved immediately after the Castle Bravo detonation tests

“The Sausage” Ivy Mike H-Bomb

Source: flickrcom

The Ivy Mike detonation was the first full test of the Teller-Ulam staged fusion device

The device detonated during the Ivy Mike test was nicknamed “The Sausage” and was the first real hydrogen bomb ever tested

The size and level of effectiveness of The Sausage meant that its primary purpose was to serve as a proof of concept rather than actually being used as a delivery weapon

When Ivy Mike was detonated in the Marshall Islands, it broke the record for the largest explosion up to that time

Weight: 41,400 – 42,000

This American thermonuclear bomb was designed based on the results of the Castle Yankee test

Castle Yankee was the third test of a thermonuclear bomb conducted by the United States

At that time, it also produced the second largest crop in the country

The parachute incorporated in the Mk 24 design was 64 feet in diameter

The Mark 17, one of the first two mass-produced hydrogen bombs used by the United States, was also the first deliverable thermonuclear weapon that could be dropped from an aircraft

The Mk 17 is the heaviest thermonuclear weapon produced by the United States

TX-21 “Shrimp” (Castle Bravo)

The Mk 21 nuclear gravity bomb was developed in the United States and is based on the TX-21 “Shrimp” prototype that was used during a test detonation called Castle Bravo

The detonation of the Mk 21 was the largest American explosion

Due to a series of unforeseen reactions, the proceeds of Castle Bravo turned out to be much higher than expected

the B41 nuclear bomb

Length: 12 feet 4 inches

This impressive bomb was the only three-stage thermonuclear weapon used by the United States, as well as the most powerful nuclear bomb ever developed by the country

It is also considered the most powerful bomb for its size in the world, surpassing the largest bomb in the world in terms of power-to-weight ratio

The B41 was the most effective bomb of its time

The B41 nuclear bomb can deliver two different yields depending on how it is launched

Tsar Bomba (RDS-220 hydrogen bomb)

Maximum yield: 50 Mt

Length: 26 feet

Weight: 60,000 pounds

Source: wikimediaorg

The Tsar Bomba or hydrogen bomb RDS-220 is the largest nuclear bomb in the world today

This stunning thermonuclear bomb was created by the USSR with the goal of creating the world’s largest nuclear weapon and still holds the record for the most powerful explosive ever detonated

The Tsar Bomba in its original form would have produced too much precipitation to be safe for testing

The design was then modified before the bomb was detonated on the deserted island of Novaya Zemlya