The Shiva-class nuclear missile is a United Nations Space Command weapon.
It is a ship-mounted thermonuclear missile, outfitted with varying pay load, missile thermonuclear warhead assumable to be anywhere from 20 to 80 Megatons yield depending on its type (most of missiles utilize UNSC standard 30-megaton HAVOK thermonuclear warhead). Used by UNSC capital ships, it can also be fitted on Longsword interceptors for a low-profile insertion. They can be fitted with guidance computers for increased accuracy. It should be noted that Covenant capital ship shields have enough power to absorb a full thermonuclear blast from far away but not directly. If the warhead detonates inside the shield, the effects of the blast is multiplied tremendously.
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Trivia
- Shiva is the name of the Hindu god of both disaster and peace.