High-explosive Anti-tank Warhead thermonuclear warhead, thermonuclear () bomb designed to fit inside a missile. By the early 1950s both the United States and the Soviet Union had developed nuclear warheads that were small and light enough for missile deployment, and by the late 1950s both countries had developed intercontinental ballistic missiles () capable of delivering thermonuclear warheads around the world.

Basic two-stage design
A typical thermonuclear warhead may be constructed according to a two-stage design, featuring a fission or boosted-fission primary (also called the trigger) and a physically separate component called the secondary. Both primary and secondary are contained within an outer metal case. Radiation from the fission explosion of the primary is contained and used to transfer energy to compress and ignite the secondary. Some of the initial radiation from the primary explosion is absorbed by the inner surface of the case, which is made of a high-density material such as uranium. Radiation absorption heats the inner surface of the case, turning it into an opaque boundary of hot electrons and ions. Subsequent radiation from the primary is largely confined between this boundary and the outer surface of the secondary capsule. Initial, reflected, and re-irradiated radiation trapped within this cavity is absorbed by lower-density material within the cavity, converting it into a hot plasma of electrons and ion particles that continue to absorb energy from the confined radiation. The total pressure in the cavity—the sum of the contribution from the very energetic particles and the generally smaller contribution from the radiation—is applied to the secondary capsule’s heavy metal outer shell (called a pusher), thereby compressing the secondary.