All NeoTeo readers know that I love sharing old projects related (to a greater or lesser extent) to nuclear technology: Strange Cold War Weapons, miracle products, post-apocalyptic science fiction visions, car spark plugs… in short, if it's atomic/radioactive, it has my attention. However, today I'm going to focus on the present of nuclear weapons, more specifically, the US arsenal. How many warheads are at its disposal? What has its evolution been in recent years? The NNSA published updated data, and this is what we know.
If someone talks about nuclear weapons, our minds travel to the '80s, the Cold War and the Berlin Wall… but the truth is they haven't gone anywhere. The arsenals are still there, and although they represent a fraction of the peaks they reached in the '60s, they are more than enough to turn the world into a radioactive, uninhabitable fireball. The Doomsday Clock stands at 90 seconds to midnight… the worst mark in its history.
Obviously, that clock now takes into account other threats, but the possibility of a nuclear exchange remains valid. On the Russian side, its inventory is estimated at 4,380 warheads, not including 1,200 that have been retired and still await dismantlement. But what about the US nuclear arsenal? After nearly three years of silence, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) published updated data:
United States has 3,748 nuclear warheads
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) indicates that the real number of warheads is just 40 units above its previous calculation. However, the same federation reports that it requested data for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023, which were denied. The new NNSA document marks a “return to transparency” for the US nuclear arsenal, a condition that has fluctuated greatly depending on the governments in power (created by Obama, suspended by Trump, and reactivated by Biden only in the first year).
The document also reveals other interesting details. For example, the United States dismantled a total of 69 retired warheads last year, the lowest number since 1994. This means that there are about 2,000 warheads stored awaiting that treatment. The FAS's original estimate was 1,336, so one can interpret that the dismantlement of warheads has lost priority. Considering the Russian government's pause in the New START treaty (emphasis on 'pause', not 'withdrawal'), we are not so surprised…
(Editor's note: Official data extends to the end of federal fiscal year 2023, that is, 3,748 warheads as of September 30, 2023.)
Sources: NNSA, FAS
