Mark 12 nuclear bomb

carrying a Mk 12 bomb (shape) over China Lake. The complete Mark-12 bomb was in diameter, long, and weighed . It had a yield of . ==Features==

The Mark-12 has been speculated to have been the first deployed nuclear weapon to have used beryllium as a reflector-tamper inside the implosion assembly (see nuclear weapon design). It is believed to have used a spherical implosion assembly, levitated pit, and 92-point detonation. It used an automatic in-flight insertion system for safing, in which its nuclear material was kept inside of the weapon itself, but outside of the implosion sphere until a motor-driven mechanism activated by the plane crew signaled for it to be inserted. ==In popular culture==

Though the weapon went out of service in 1962, it resurfaced in a fictional role in Tom Clancy's 1991 book The Sum of All Fears and the 2002 film, where the plot included an Israeli copy of the Mark-12 being lost by accident in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War in southern Syria near the Golan Heights, and then recovered by a terrorist organization. ==See also==