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American scientists examine a mockup of a W48 155-millimeter nuclear shell, a very small tactical nuclear weapon.

A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) refers to a nuclear weapon which is designed to actually be used on a battlefield in military situations. This is as opposed to strategic nuclear weapons which are designed to threaten large populations or to generally deter attacks. Tactical nuclear weapons are generally considered part of a strategy of limited, rather than total, nuclear war.

Tactical weapons include not only gravity bombs and missiles but also artillery shells, land mines, depth charges, and torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare. A tactical nuclear weapon would involve the above weapons with a nuclear warhead.

Small, two-man portable tactical weapons (somewhat misleadingly referred to as suitcase bombs), such as the Special Atomic Demolition Munition, have been developed, although the difficulty of combining sufficient yield with portability limits their military utility.

Other new tactical weapons undergoing research include earth penetrating weapons, designed to target caves or bunkers.

The yield of tactical nuclear weapons is generally lower than that of strategic nuclear weapons, though they are still extremely powerful, and some variable-yield warheads serve in both roles. Modern tactical nuclear warheads have yields up to the tens, or potentially hundreds of kilotons, several times that of the weapons used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Some tactical nuclear weapons have specific features meant to enhance their battlefield characteristics, such as "dial-a-yield", which allows their energy output to be varied greatly for a given situation, or enhanced radiation warheads (the so-called "neutron bombs") which are meant to reduce overall nuclear fallout and devastation while maximizing military casualties.

One famous tactical nuclear weapon was the "atomic cannon" tested in shot Upshot-Knothole Grable in 1953.

The development of tactical weapons has often been criticized along a number of grounds. Many have argued that the promise of being able to wage a "limited" nuclear war with tactical weapons is dangerously misleading, and that any confrontation between nuclear powers could lead to escalation and eventually the use of strategic weapons. Additionally, the small size of many tactical weapons make them potential targets for theft and nuclear terrorism, especially during times of political instability (such as the case of Russia immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union). Tactical nuclear weapons have in the past made up a large part of the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union, and were a major part in the peak stockpile levels in the 1960s.

On the converse, some theorists argued during the Cold War that without tactical nuclear weapons, the United States would not have had a credible threat against the large armies of the Soviet Union, since it was unlikely that they would want to be the first to use strategic weapons in warfare. Because many felt that the use of any nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union was tantamount to suicide, though, the practical distinctions between tactical and strategic weapons may have effectively not existed.

The uses on the battlefield for TNWs would include:

• Against a large ground force
• Against a fortified underground bunker
• Against remote and/or heavily-defended target locations difficult or impossible to reach with conventional weapons
• Against a carrier battle group or any collection of surface vessels
• Against a large amphibious invasion force
• Against a 100+ vehicle supply convoy

• Frogs (free rockets over ground)
• Backpack Nukes
• Davy Crocketts
• Suitcase bombs (however, this name can be misleading as it can encompass other types of non-nuclear munitions)
• Tactical Nukes
• Atomic Bazookas

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Tactical nuclear weapons

• M-388 Davy Crockett
• Red Beard
• B57 nuclear bomb
• List of nuclear weapons