1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion
The 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion was the destruction of a US Air Force Titan II missile near Damascus, Arkansas, in September 1980, after a dropped tool punctured its fuel tank.
A. Q. Khan network
The A. Q. Khan network was an illicit operation run from Pakistan by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan that sold nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea.
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as A.Q. Khan, was a Pakistani metallurgical engineer celebrated as the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, who also sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea.
Amiton
Amiton (VG) is a highly toxic organophosphate compound synthesized in 1952 as an insecticide, withdrawn for its toxicity, and now a scheduled chemical weapon precursor.
Antimatter weapon
An antimatter weapon, also called an antimatter bomb or antimatter explosive, is a hypothetical explosive using antimatter annihilation, studied since the 1940s but never built because production is far too slow.
Astraea (nuclear warhead)
Astraea, designated A21/Mk7, is the UK's replacement nuclear warhead program led by AWE to succeed the Mk4A on Trident missiles, entering service around the late 2030s.
B41 nuclear bomb
The B41 nuclear bomb, also designated Mk-41, was a three-stage American thermonuclear gravity bomb, the highest-yield weapon the United States ever deployed at a reported 25 megatons, serving from 1960 to 1976.
B53 nuclear bomb
The B53 was a 9-megaton American thermonuclear gravity bomb, about the size of a minivan, in the stockpile from 1962 to 1997 and designed to destroy deeply buried targets.
B61 nuclear bomb
The B61 nuclear bomb, also known as the B61 nuclear weapon, is an American variable-yield gravity bomb in service since 1968 and deployed in Europe under NATO nuclear sharing.
B83 nuclear bomb
The B83 is a US thermonuclear gravity bomb designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the highest-yield weapon in the arsenal at up to 1.2 megatons since 1983.
Binary chemical weapon
A binary chemical weapon, or binary munition, carries two relatively safe components that mix during delivery to form a lethal nerve agent such as sarin or VX.
Biological warfare
Biological warfare, also called germ warfare or biowarfare, is the military use of biological agents to cause disease or death, banned for states under the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.
Biopreparat
Biopreparat (Russian: Биопрепарат) was a Soviet state agency created in 1973 to secretly develop and produce biological weapons behind a cover of civilian biotechnology, in violation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.
Biosecurity
Biosecurity refers to organizational and individual protective steps keeping pathogens and toxins from being lost, stolen, misused, diverted, or deliberately released, spanning laboratory, animal health, public health, and agricultural contexts.
Bioterrorism
Bioterrorism, also called biological terrorism, is the intentional release of bacteria, viruses, or toxins to cause disease and death, and is classed as a weapon of mass destruction.
BioWatch
BioWatch is a US Department of Homeland Security early warning system, created in 2003 after the anthrax letter attacks, that monitors air in more than 30 metropolitan areas for biological agents.
Blue Danube (nuclear weapon)
Blue Danube was the first operational nuclear weapon of the United Kingdom, a free-fall plutonium implosion bomb based on the "Fat Man" design and stockpiled through the 1950s.
Blue Grass Army Depot
Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) is a US Army munitions depot near Richmond, Kentucky, established in 1941, which stored the last US chemical weapons until 2023.
Blue Peacock
Blue Peacock was a British 1950s project to develop a ten-kiloton nuclear land mine for the British Army of the Rhine in West Germany, canceled in 1958.
Boosted fission weapon
A boosted fission weapon is a nuclear weapon in which deuterium and tritium gas in the fission core releases neutrons that raise yield and efficiency.
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
The British nuclear tests at Maralinga, also called the Maralinga nuclear tests, were British nuclear weapons trials conducted in the South Australian desert between 1955 and 1963.
Castle Bravo
Castle Bravo was a 1954 United States thermonuclear weapons test at Bikini Atoll with a yield of 15 megatons, the largest US nuclear detonation in history.
Chagai-I
Chagai-I, the first Pakistani nuclear test, was a set of five simultaneous underground detonations in the Ras Koh Hills of Balochistan on 28 May 1998, responding to India's Pokhran-II tests.
Cheget (Чегет)
Cheget (Чегет), Russia's "nuclear briefcase," is the portable terminal of the Kazbek command system, held by the president, defense minister, and chief of the General Staff since 1983.
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare, also known as gas warfare, is the use of toxic chemicals delivered by munitions to kill or incapacitate people in war, first used on a large scale in 1915 at Ypres.
Chemical warfare agent decontamination
Chemical warfare agent decontamination is the removal or chemical destruction of warfare agents such as nerve agents and blister agents from people, equipment, and terrain.
Chemical weapon
Chemical weapons, also called chemical warfare agents, are toxic chemicals or precursors with delivery munitions, first used on a large scale at Ypres, Belgium, in 1915.
Chemical weapons in World War I
Chemical weapons in World War I, first used at Ypres in 1915, were poison gases like chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas that caused over 1.3 million casualties.
China and weapons of mass destruction
China has one of the world's largest weapons of mass destruction arsenals, including around 620 nuclear warheads as of January 2026, 45 nuclear tests, and a no-first-use policy.
Cobalt bomb
A cobalt bomb is a hypothetical salted nuclear weapon, a hydrogen bomb jacketed in cobalt to maximize long-lived fallout, first described by Leo Szilard in 1950.