Nuclear Weapon
Despite their age, Nuclear Weapons (or atomics[13]) are still used by the Imperium for example as a subject of the Exterminatus of a target planet.[16]
Known Nuclear Weapons Platforms
- The Deathstrike Missile Launcher, though the Imperial Guard prefers Plasma warheads.[12]
- Imperial Navy warships may use atomics during Exterminatus and orbital bombardment[13] or for ship-to-ship combat in macro-batteries or torpedoes.[15]
- Harbinger Bomber[5]
- The Squat Land Train Bomb Battlewagon[14]
- The shells fired by the Earthwrecker railway gun carry a fission charge.[18]
- The Marauder Bomber can deploy the Atlas atomic bomb.[19]
- The Hellfire-class Nuclear Missile carries 112 sub-munitions, each equipped with a five gigaton fusion warhead.[20]
- The Cataclysmus Device is a hand-held thrown weapon that uses heavy-material micro-fission.[22]
- The Tac-nuke Pistol is an archaeotech weapon the size of a stub pistol.[23]
- Nuclear Void Mines are deployed as a minefield around a planet.[26]
Notable Instances of Nuclear Weapons Use
- The ancient civil wars which devastated Baal[3]
- Mass use during the Unification Wars[10]
- Corvus Corax and his rebels unleashed a nuclear bombardment of Kiavahr during their slave revolt.[6]
- The Sarosh attempted to assassinate Lion El'Jonson with a nuclear warhead during the Great Crusade[1]
- The Fall of the Lords of Gardinaal - Used by Gardinaal forces[7]
- Unleashed by traitor forces against loyalists during the Battle of Isstvan III[13]
- The Dreadwing of the Dark Angels made use of cataclysmic man-portable atomics.[24]
- The Drop Site Massacre - The Iron Warriors launched a tactical nuclear weapon at Vulkan's position.[4]
- During the Schism of Mars hundreds of nuclear weapons silos were fired against loyalist forces[11].
- The Krieg Civil War[2]
- In the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, the fallen hive Ferrozoica annihilated Vannick Hive with a nuclear device.[17]
- Chaos Space Marine forces unleashed nuclear weapons against the world of Ioline during the Diamor Campaign[8]
- The Blood Angels fleet launched mass nuclear bombardment against Tyranid forces during the Devastation of Baal.[9]
- During the 13th Black Crusade the Cadian Port on the Caducades Sea[21a] was annihilated by an Imperial atomic charge[21c] planted at the heart of the port,[21b] killing ten thousand Chaos forces.[21c]
- The Word Bearers used nuclear air strikes during their attack on Cybele.[25]
- On Hieronymous Theta atomic charges were sometimes deployed during mining operations,[27b] most often used to blast through sturdy bedrock.[27c] After Necrons emerged deep from within the mines,[27a] four of these charges were carried on the body of a single person in an ultimately canceled suicide mission to destroy the tomb. After being ordered to retreat, the atomic charges were safely stored away by a quartermaster of the Krieg 186th Infantry Regiment.[27c]
See also
Sources
- 1: Descent of Angels (Novel), Chapter 20
- 2: Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks - Part One, pgs. 86-88
- 3: Index Astartes - Blood Angels
- 4: Fulgrim (Novel), Chapter 25
- 5: Tactica Aeronautica, pg. 21
- 6: The Horus Heresy Book Three - Extermination, pg. 133
- 7: The Horus Heresy Book Two - Massacre, pgs. 88–91
- 8: Black Crusade: Traitor's Hate, Chapter 2
- 9: Codex: Tyranids (8th Edition) — The Battle of Baal
- 10: A Thousand Sons (Novel), Chapter 22
- 11: Mechanicum (Novel), Chapter 3.01
- 12: Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pg. 55
- 13: Fulgrim (Novel), Chapter 21
- 14: Ork and Squat Warlords, pg. 40
- 15: Rogue Trader: Into the Storm, pg. 163
- 16: Dark Imperium: Godblight (Novel), Chapter 33
- 17: Necropolis (Novel) — The Founding (Omnibus), Chapter Four
- 18: Flesh and Iron (Novel), Chapter Sixteen
- 19: Wings of Bone (Short Story) — On Wings of Blood (Anthology)
- 20: Space Hulk (1st Edition) Mission Book, pg. 3
- 21: The 13th Black Crusade (Background Book):
- 22: Dark Heresy: The Lathe Worlds, The Lost Dataslate, pg. 10
- 23: Fanatic Magazine Issue 5, pg. 43 — Explorator Warbands
- 24: Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First (Novel) Chapter 7 Section II
- 25: Blood Angels: The Second Omnibus, Appendix Angelus (Revised and Expanded), pg. 682
- 26: Deus Encarmine (Novel) — The Blood Angels Omnibus, Chapter Seven
- 27: Dead Men Walking (Novel) — Honour Imperialis (Omnibus):
