Tsar Bomba — hydrogen aerial bomb tested in 1961 by the Soviet Union; most powerful nuclear weapon ever created
The Tsar Bomba, detonated in 1961, remains the most powerful nuclear device ever tested, yielding 50 megatons of TNT.
Key Facts
- Yield (accepted)
- 50 megatons of TNT Mt
- Detonation altitude
- 4,000 metres above Severny Island m
- Theoretical maximum yield
- Over 100 megatons with uranium tamper Mt
- Fission share of yield
- 3% (approximately 1.5 Mt) %
- Delivery aircraft
- Tupolev Tu-95V, dropped by parachute
- Project ordered by
- Nikita Khrushchev, July 1961
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
In July 1961, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev ordered the development of a massive thermonuclear device as part of the Soviet resumption of nuclear testing following the Test Ban Moratorium. The detonation was timed to coincide with the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving as a demonstration of Soviet nuclear capability during the Cold War.
On 30 October 1961, the AN602 bomb, designated Tsar Bomba, was dropped by parachute from a Tu-95V aircraft and detonated autonomously 4,000 metres above Sukhoy Nos cape on Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya. Designed by Andrei Sakharov and colleagues at Arzamas-16, the weapon yielded 50 megatons of TNT, verifying design principles for thermonuclear charges of theoretically unlimited yield.
The test prompted the United States to signal readiness to negotiate the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, eventually signed in 1963. The bomb's design, though too large for operational deployment, influenced early development of the Soviet Proton rocket. Western governments emphasized its military impracticality, while its technical data also prompted disclosure of the US B41 nuclear bomb's 25-megaton yield.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Andrei Sakharov, Nikita Khrushchev.