How big was a Hercules conventional warhead?
The T-45 conventional high explosive warhead weighed 1106 pounds and contained 600 pounds of HBX-6 military explosive. Comment: “I have not seen…for going nuclear.” Discussion: One of the main reasons for placing a requirement for the Nike Hercules to have a nuclear capability was to assure the complete destruction of the weapon (presumably nuclear) that the bomber was carrying, and to remove the possibility of the “dead man” effect of the bomb continuing to the target area even after the plane was destroyed. Placing the plane (and the weapon it was carrying) inside a nuclear fireball would assure the destruction of the bomb. Our experiences against the SCUD missiles in the Gulf War show that missiles were successfully engaged and knocked down, but the SCUD’s warheads continued into the target area, striking the ground (not necessarily where they were intended to hit) but never-the-less killing people and doing damage. Hitting a SCUD with even a low yield nuclear weapon or placing it
