Weapons & delivery systems

Tactical Nuclear Weapon

A nuclear weapon designed for battlefield use, with shorter range and yields running from under 1 kt to 100 kt or more.

Tactical (non-strategic) nuclear weapons have shorter ranges; their yields run from under 1 kt to 100 kt or more (the US B61-3 bomb is rated at 0.3–170 kt). ^{[1, 2]} They include artillery shells, depth charges, short-range missiles, and gravity bombs. Modern tactical weapons like the B61 and Russian Iskander-K warhead have variable yields (sometimes called "dial-a-yield"). The line between tactical and strategic blurs at higher yields.

Sources

1.Source: Federation of American Scientists / Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, United States nuclear weapons, 2025 (Nuclear Notebook PDF) — retrieved Oct 2026
2.Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists / FAS, Russian nuclear weapons, 2026, Table 1 (May 2026) — retrieved Oct 2026

Related terms

Strategic Nuclear Weapon

A nuclear weapon designed for long-range strikes against an adversary's population centers, industrial base, or strategic infrastructure.

See the full Nuclear Weapons Glossary.