YELLOW SUN Mk.2

The Yellow Sun Mk.2 thermonuclear bomb is a much lighter and more efficient development of the previous Yellow Sun Mk.1 bomb. On this occasion a new warhead designated as Red Snow was mounted on the previous casing to avoid costly and long tests as well as problems in its handling and integration into the combat units. This new warhead was basically a British copy of the American W-28 warhead, which provided the B-28 bombs and Hound Dog missiles and which had a yielding of 1.8Mt. Its development began in 1958, and in 1961 they were already in service. It is estimated that about 150 bombs were built that were kept in the RAF arsenals until 1972 when they were replaced by the new American WE-177 warhead.

YELLOW SUN Mk.2 gallery and more info