The Tsar Bomba was not designed as a weapon, but as a proof-of-concept that larger warheads were possible and to exert psychological pressure on the United States. The aim was to achieve – without pursuing a quantitative parity with the US in terms of nuclear weapons and means of delivery – sufficient “guaranteed retaliation with an unacceptable level of damage to the enemy” in the event of a nuclear strike on the USSR via qualitatively superior nuclear power. In addition to being created for political, propagandistic use and as a response to the nuclear deterrence capabilities then possessed by the United States, the Tsar Bomba was created as part of the strategic nuclear forces concept of the USSR, adopted during the rule of Georgy Malenkov and Nikita Khrushchev.
Kúz’kina mát’, IPA: ), possibly referring to First secretary Nikita Khrushchev’s promise to “show the United States a Kuzma’s mother” (an idiom roughly translating to “We’ll show you”) at a 1960 session of the United Nations General Assembly. The bomb was also referred to as Kuzma’s mother (Russian: Ку́зькина ма́ть, tr. The CIA designated the test as “JOE 111”. The name “Tsar Bomba” was coined in an analogy with other large Russian objects: the Tsar Bell and Tsar Cannon.
#Tsar bomba megatons code#
Many codenames are attributed to the Tsar Bomba: Project 7000 product code 202 (Izdeliye 202), “Product V” (izdeliye V) article designations RDS-220 (РДС-220), RDS-202 (РДС-202), RN202 (PH202, incorrect codename as the AN602 is a modification of the RN202), AN602 (AH602) codename Vanya nicknames Big Ivan, Kuzkina mat.
The remaining bomb casings are located at the Russian Atomic Weapon Museum in Sarov and the Museum of Nuclear Weapons, All-Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics, at Snezhinsk. In theory, the bomb would have had a yield in excess of 100 Mt (420 PJ) if it had included a uranium-238 fusion tamper but, because only one bomb was built to completion, that capability has never been demonstrated. As they had the instrumental data and access to the test site, their yield figure has been accepted as more accurate. The bhangmeter results and other data suggested the bomb yielded about 58 megatons of TNT (240 PJ), which was the accepted yield in technical literature until 1991, when Soviet scientists revealed that their instruments indicated a yield of 50 Mt (210 PJ). The US apparently had an instrumented KC-135R aircraft (Operation SpeedLight) in the area of the test – close enough to have been scorched by the blast. The detonation was secret but was detected by United States intelligence agencies. The bomb was detonated 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) above the Sukhoy Nos (“Dry Nose”) cape of Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya, 15 km (9.3 miles) from Mityushikha Bay, north of Matochkin Strait. The crown of the cloud is 65 km (40 miles) (213,000 feet) high at the time of the picture.
The mushroom cloud of Tsar Bomba seen from a distance of 161 km (100 miles).
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