La bomba de neutrones, también llamada bomba N, bomba de radiación directa incrementada o bomba de radiación forzada es un arma nuclear derivada de la bomba H que los Estados Unidos comenzaron a desplegar a finales de los años 70. En las bombas H normalmente el 50% de la energía liberada se obtiene por fisión nuclear y el otro 50% por fusión. En la bomba de neutrones se consigue hacer bajar el porcentaje de energía obtenida por fisión a menos del 50%, e incluso se ha llegado a hacerlo a cerca del 5%. De las radiaciones que se producen en el instante de la explosión, la que aquí nos atañe es la de neutrones. Una gran cantidad de estas partículas son emitidas con niveles energéticos muy altos, y por tanto, con gran capacidad de penetración. Recordemos que, concretamente en las reacciones de fusión, se producían neutrones rápidos, los más energéticos. Estos se utilizaban para fisionar el material fisible de un eventual tamper de material fisible (U-235 o U-238).

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A neutron bomb, officially termed as a type of Enhanced Radiation Weapon (ERW), is a low yield thermonuclear weapon in which a burst of neutrons generated by a nuclear fusion reaction is intentionally allowed to escape the weapon, rather than being absorbed by its other components. The neutron bomb was to be employed as a tactical nuclear weapon intended for use against armored forces. Originally conceived by the U.S. military, the design goals were to stop massed Soviet armored divisions from overrunning allied nations with less civilian and structural collateral damage to these allied nations. The weapon's radiation case, usually made from relatively thick uranium, lead or steel in a standard bomb, is, instead, made of as thin a material as possible, to facilitate the greatest escape of fusion-produced neutrons. The usual nuclear weapon yield—expressed as kilotons of TNT equivalent—is not a measure of a neutron weapon's destructive power. It refers only to the energy released (mostly heat and blast), and does not express the lethal effect of neutron radiation on living organisms. Compared to a pure fission bomb with an identical explosive yield, a neutron bomb would emit about ten times the amount of neutron radiation. In a fission bomb, at sea level, the total radiation pulse energy which is composed of both gamma rays and neutrons is approximately 5% of the entire energy released; in the neutron bomb it would be closer to 40%. Furthermore, the neutrons emitted by a neutron bomb have a much higher average energy level (close to 14 MeV) than those released during a fission reaction (1–2 MeV). Technically speaking, all low yield nuclear weapons are radiation weapons, including non-enhanced variants. Up to about 10 kilotons in yield, all nuclear weapons have prompt neutron radiation as their furthest-reaching lethal component, after which point the lethal blast and thermal effects radius begins to out-range the lethal ionizing radiation radius. Enhanced radiation weapons also fall into this same yield range and simply enhance the intensity and range of the neutron dose for a given yield.

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