How much did making the first atomic bombs in us cost?

Answer 1

I presume you already have a known-good (i.e. working and tested) bomb design, and sufficient weapons-grade bomb fuel (U-235/Pu-239 and possibly H2/H3 and or other exotics). I'll group the weapons into a couple of categories, based on their manufacturing difficulty.

There are two cost estimates given for each category: the first assumes you

already have the manufacturing equipment needed, and are only buying materials (other than the bomb fuel), while the second assumes you must also acquire the machinery needed to make the bomb parts, and/or obtain some the bomb parts commercially.

Crude A-bomb: This category is exclusively the very basic "gun-type" Uranium-fuel fission weapon, with yields of < 10k; they have a a moderate probability (maybe 1 in 2 or 1 in 3) of working properly. You would need access to a professional-quality machine shop. $20,000 if you have access to one, or maybe $100,000 to buy access/custom order parts from suppliers.

Functional A-bomb: This category includes all pure fission weapons, constructed with a very high-quality parts. Here you get a U-based weapon of < 30kT, or a Pu-239 implosion weapon of 20-50kT, with a relatively high level of reliability (90%+): $1 million, or $10-20 million if you have to acquire the high-tolerance machine tools and custom electronics.

Functional Advanced Weapon: This included boosted (H2/H3) fission weapons,

hydrogen fusion weapons, and hybrid fission-fusion-fission weapons, with yields from 300kT to 5 MT. $2-5 million, or $100+ million to get the manufacturing capability.

See the related question below, if you are looking for a discussion as to how expensive/complex it is to design a bomb, build the infrastructure required to produce the nuclear fuel, and then test and manufacture a reliable weapon.

Answer 2

This depends largely on the size of the bomb, but for a GP 500lb HE bomb, maybe 25,000 USD.

Actually, the above overstates the cost considerably. A general-purpose 500 lbs iron bomb (no guidance) such as a Mk 82 costs under $300 each. Dumb bombs are dirt cheap, as they consist of little more than a simple metal shell filled with a common explosive filler, and a simple fuse.

Other common bombs such as napalm, incendiary, white phosphorous, or the like are slightly more expensive, but not drastically so.

Guidance packages which are bolted on to iron bombs can costs considerably more, however. The GBU-12 package for the above 500 lbs bomb costs around $19,000.

Specialty bombs such as the MOAB, thermobaric (fuel-air), ICM (improved conventional munitions) or the like can be rather expensive, even without a guidance package. They quickly run into the 10s of thousands per bomb.

Answer 3

There are too many types of munitions and bombs to list them all, but the M-982 Excalbur extended-range, radar-guided artillery round fired by the U.S. Marine Corps M-777 howitzer costs approx $ 53,600, while a Mark 84 general-purpose 'dumb bomb' costs only approx $ 3,100.

Answer 4

That depends on who is selling it, who is buying it, and whether or not it is a Black Friday sale at Walmart.

Answer 5

just a guess 99999999999999999999999999999999

Answer 6

Depends on the bomb. Anywhere from a few dollars to a few million dollars.

Answer 7

$50,000