Lesson plan

W54

projectile. The unusually small size of the warhead is apparent. paratrooper with the Green Light Teams conducts a high-altitude low-opening military freefall jump with a MK54. The W54 (also known as the Mark 54 or B54) was a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the late 1950s. The weapon is the smallest nuclear weapon in both weight and yield to have entered US service. It was a compact implosion device based on plutonium-239, and in various versions and mods it had a yield of . The weapon had two distinct versions: a warhead used in the AIM-26 Falcon air-to-air missile and in the Davy Crockett recoilless gun, and another used in the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) system, along with several mods for each version. The two types are distinct in that much of the design between them was different, to the point that during the development of the SADM it was proposed that it be given its own unique mark designation. A later development was the W72, which was a rebuilt W54 used with the AGM-62 Walleye guided bomb. The W72 was in service until 1979.

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Article summary

projectile. The unusually small size of the warhead is apparent. paratrooper with the Green Light Teams conducts a high-altitude low-opening military freefall jump with a MK54. The W54 (also known as the Mark 54 or B54) was a tactical nuclear warhead developed by the United States in the late 1950s. The weapon is the smallest nuclear weapon in both weight and yield to have entered US service. It was a compact implosion device based on plutonium-239, and in various versions and mods it had a yield of . The weapon had two distinct versions: a warhead used in the AIM-26 Falcon air-to-air missile and in the Davy Crockett recoilless gun, and another used in the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) system, along with several mods for each version. The two types are distinct in that much of the design between them was different, to the point that during the development of the SADM it was proposed that it be given its own unique mark designation. A later development was the W72, which was a rebuilt W54 used with the AGM-62 Walleye guided bomb. The W72 was in service until 1979.

Key claims

  1. release date: 1959 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the release date is "1959". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1376547250

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.