Updated on
Summary
The United States released newly declassified details about its nuclear stockpile, including significant progress made in dismantling warheads, in an effort to promote transparency and help stem nuclear proliferation.The United States had 5,113 warheads in its nuclear weapons stockpile as of Sept. 30, a senior defense official told reporters on background.That represents an 84 percent reduction from the end of fiscal 1967, when the U.S. nuclear arsenal was its largest, with 31,255 warheads, the official said. The current stockpile is 75 percent lower than when the Berlin Wall fell in late 1989, and the United States had 22,217 warheads.The United States is making continued progress in dismantling nuclear warheads: with 8,748 dismantled between fiscal years 1994 and 2009 and several thousand more currently retired and awaiting dismantlement, the official noted. Meanwhile, the number of non-strategic nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal dropped about 90 percent from Sept. 30, 1991, to Sept. 30, 2009.For those who doubt that the United States will do its part on disarmament, this is our record, these are our commitments, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the U.N. conference on the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty in New York. And they send a clear, unmistakable message.A senior defense official expressed hope that it would set a standard for the rest of the world, including China, to be more transparent about their nuclear weapons programs.Clinton said the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, once approved, will further limit the number of strategic nuclear weapons deployed by both countries to levels not seen since the 1950s.Clinton also noted that the new Nuclear Posture Review, released in April, rules out the development of new U.S. nuclear weapons and new missions and capabilities for existing weapons. It also prohibits the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states that are parties to the NPT and comply with its nonproliferation obligations.
