RDS-37

Aircraft bombSoviet UnionThermonuclear (staged)

No freely licensed photo of this device yet.

Yield · TNT equivalent1.6 Mt

Key specs

Country: Soviet Union
Design: Thermonuclear (staged)
Type: Aircraft bomb

Overview

The first Soviet two-stage thermonuclear bomb, dropped from a Tu-16 over Semipalatinsk on 22 November 1955. It used radiation implosion, the same principle as the American Teller–Ulam design, and was deliberately reduced to about 1.6 Mt from a design of roughly 3 Mt.

The bomb burst at 1,550 m under a temperature inversion that reflected the shock wave back to the ground: a soldier was killed when a trench collapsed, and a young girl died under a collapsing building about 65 km away. RDS-37 became the basis of later Soviet thermonuclear charges.

Effect radii: estimates

Calculated for 1.6 Mt

Fireball, maximum radius: ≈ 1.2 km
Initial radiation, 500 rem (5 Sv): ≈ 3.4 km
Blast 5 psi: most buildings collapse: ≈ 8.3 km
Thermal: third-degree burns: ≈ 14 km
Blast 1 psi: windows shatter: ≈ 26 km

Estimated ground ranges for an air burst at the optimum height over flat, open ground, computed from the yield with standard scaling laws. These are not measurements: real effects depend on the height of burst, terrain, buildings and weather.

Formulas from: Glasstone & Dolan, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (1977), chapter II; Carey Sublette, Nuclear Weapons FAQ, section 5

Tests and use

Date	Event	Site	Yield
Nov 22, 1955	RDS-37Air drop from a Tu-16; burst at 1,550 m.	Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR	1.6 Mt

Test footage

Archive films hosted on YouTube. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play; the player then comes from youtube-nocookie.com.

atomcentral · youtube.com

atomicarchive · youtube.com

Sources

Soviet Nuclear Test Summary, Nuclear Weapon Archive (Carey Sublette)
RDS-37, Wikipedia