Mini-nuke

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Mini-nuke is a low yield nuclear weapon which has much less explosive power than the most powerful nuclear weapons available. Such devices are also known as suitcase nukes when designed for sabotage operations.

Because of the relatively large yield, a state can plan to use these weapons while hoping to encounter negative public reactions associated with nuclear war. Any potential plan to produce mini-nukes by the United States has been blocked by the United States Congress, which prohibited the development of any nuclear weapons with a yield of less than five kilotons, roughly a third of the power of Little Boy, the Hiroshima bomb^{[citation needed]}. Previously, tactical devices such as the Davy Crockett recoilless rifle offered yields as low as tens of tons, but all existing devices in the U.S. arsenal have much higher yields. Nuclear bunker buster's are a separate development, and utilize higher yield warheads, in the tens or hundreds of kilotons, in order to produce sufficient shock through the ground to destroy their target.