(ordnance)

An item which is designed to be mounted in or on a torpedo, guided missile, rocket, or bomb; it may contain high-explosive, nuclear, chemical, biological, or inert materials.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

a part of a missile that is designed to inflict destruction on a target. In it is put the payload, the fuse (destruct system), and the safety-lock actuating mechanism. The warhead, which consists of a jacket and combat charge, inflicts the immediate damaging effect on the target. Combat charges of the appropriate type (nuclear and conventional explosives) and of the necessary capacity (yield) are used, depending on the size and vulnerability of the target that the missile is to strike. The capacity factor of the effect of a warhead on a target occupying a given area is its zone of effectiveness (killing zone). For an individual target, it is the probability of destruction (kill probability). Depending on the type of missile, warheads can be transported in the structure of the missile and also separately.

IU. B. CHUEV and K. A. NIKOLAEV