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

• Rad Weapon

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):
  • 21a: pg. 87
  • 21b: pg. 88
  • 21c: pg. 94
• 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):
  • 27a: Chapter Three
  • 27b: Chapter Twenty-One
  • 27c: Chapter Twenty-Four