{"id":6486,"date":"2024-08-08T06:16:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T06:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=6486"},"modified":"2024-08-08T06:19:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T06:19:10","slug":"we-now-know-the-full-extent-of-the-u-s-nuclear-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=6486","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Nuclear Arsenal and Deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently declassified stockpile numbers underscore a continuing arms race.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 20, the United States revealed<\/a> that it has 3,748 nuclear warheads in its military stockpile. These are weapons that are ready to use, with estimated yields that range from 8 kilotons to more than 300 kilotons. Hiroshima, by comparison, was destroyed with one 20-kiloton bomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Declassifying the total number of warheads for the first time since 2021, the Biden Administration called<\/a> its decision an act of transparency \u201cimportant to nonproliferation and disarmament efforts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the revelation comes amid a new arms race that the United States is\u00a0helping<\/a>\u00a0to fuel with a $1.7 trillion investment in so-called modernization, replacing missiles, airplanes, and submarines while\u00a0upgrading<\/a>\u00a03,750 existing warheads and\u00a0creating<\/a>\u00a0new ones for the first time in three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The revelation comes amid a new arms race that the United States is helping to fuel with a $1.7 trillion investment in so-called modernization.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The government did not reveal details of the stockpile, but roughly half\u2014some 1,770 warheads\u2014are armed and deployed on missiles, submarines, and bombers,\u00a0according to<\/a>\u00a0the Nuclear Information Project, a division of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), which has\u00a0tracked\u00a0<\/a>nuclear capabilities worldwide for years. The FAS,\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0\u201cone of the most widely sourced resources for nuclear warhead counts\u201d by\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em>,\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0that 400 of the deployed weapons are installed on land-based intercontinental missiles, 970 on submarine missiles, 300 are kept at\u00a0two<\/a>\u00a0Air Force bases in the United States (to be increased to five, and 100 are stored in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAS estimates that another 1,978 warheads are armed and ready. The government describes this group as available \u201cfor possible deployment within a short time frame.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third group, estimated by the FAS at 1,330 warheads, is labeled \u201cinactive\u201d by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the federal agency responsible for producing and maintaining nuclear weapons. They are stored and are considered \u201cnon-operational\u201d with tritium bottles removed.\u00a0Tritium<\/a>\u00a0is the gas that creates fusion when squirted into an exploding plutonium pit, resulting in a powerful thermonuclear bomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Declassifying stockpile numbers has been a unilateral geopolitical calculation made erratically by U.S. Presidents. In 2010, the Obama Administration, for the first time, declassified<\/a> the entire history of the U.S. nuclear stockpile size, in part to show that the United States was abiding by the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty<\/a> and to encourage other nuclear powers to follow suit. So far, that strategy has failed, the FAS reports. Stockpiles are actually increasing<\/a> in China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAS estimates <\/a>that nine countries possess more than 12,100 warheads, 2,100 of which are mounted on ballistic missiles and \u201care on high alert, ready for use on short notice.\u201d Overall, the FAS reports, the number of warheads assigned to operational forces \u201c[i]s increasing once again,\u201d although its estimates \u201ccome with significant uncertainty\u201d because most nuclear powers keep their stockpiles secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense hawks, including former President Donald Trump, argue<\/a> that releasing stockpile details gives enemies vital information. But advocates say otherwise. Transparency \u201creduces chances of misperception and removes another\u2019s perceived need to build more under an impression that it is \u2018behind\u2019 the other,\u201d John Tierney, executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, tells The Progressive<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough overtures inviting discussions have been offered by the United States, neither Russia nor China have engaged, at least for now,\u201d Tierney says. \u201cThe U.S. is reintroducing a practice halted by Trump. In the past, such leadership has eventually resulted in other countries following suit. It has the prospect of lowering temperatures and may lead to at least a slight opening toward limited dialogue\u2014a start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its declassification announcement, the Biden Administration\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0that the U.S. stockpile is 88 percent smaller than it was in 1967, at the height of the Cold War when the United States had 31,255 warheads. Between 1994 and 2023, the U.S. dismantled 12,088 warheads. Another 2,000 are \u201cretired\u201d and are scheduled for dismantlement. They have been removed from their delivery platforms and are not functional,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the NNSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dismantling warheads is an important signal of U.S. intentions, Hans Kristensen, the director of the FAS Nuclear Information Project, tells The Progressive<\/em>. \u201cIt shows how much they are eating away at this big pool of warheads, and not just storing them in some garage somewhere. It serves many purposes, both as a sort of reassurance and credibility. It really helps take away the fuel in conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, he says, revealing the size of the U.S. stockpile is a form of deterrence. \u201cYou have to convince adversaries and also allies that you have stuff that works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dramatic reduction in the size of the U.S. stockpile was caused primarily by the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. But nuclear weapons have also become more technically efficient, Kristensen says. \u201cYou don\u2019t need as many to do the job.\u201d Thousands of nuclear weapons have also \u201caged out.\u201d A third factor is the replacement of nuclear bombs with conventional weapons. \u201cWe aimed nukes at everything back in those days. Today, in the U.S. arsenal, they have almost entirely moved away from nonstrategic [tactical] nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hans M. Kristensen & Matt Korda, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAS reports that the United States has nuclear weapons in twenty-four geographical locations in eleven states and five European countries. The number of locations will increase<\/a> over the next decade as nuclear storage capacity is added to three U.S. bomber bases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The location with the greatest number of nuclear weapons, 2,485, is the Kirtland Underground Munitions and Maintenance Storage Complex<\/a> south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Most of its weapons are retired and awaiting dismantling at the Pantex Plant in Carson County, Texas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington State, home<\/a> of the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific and the ballistic missile submarines at Naval Submarine Base Kitsap, holds 1,620 warheads<\/a>. The submarines operating from this base carry more deployed nuclear weapons than any other base in the United States, the FAS reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research<\/a>, in a summary of the New Start Treaty, the United States has deployed nuclear warheads at these locations: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

450 warheads are mounted<\/a> on intercontinental ballistic missiles in silos in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, and North Dakota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1,100 warheads are deployed<\/a> on fourteen Ohio-class submarines each carrying up to twenty-four Trident missiles, which themselves are capable of carrying up to five warheads. Six are based at Kings Bay, Georgia, and eight are based in Silverdale, Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

300 are at bomber bases in the United States\u2014200 at the Minot, North Dakota, Air Force base, and 100 at Whiteman Air Force Base in Johnson County, Missouri. The Defense Department has announced<\/a> that three more bases are being expanded for the new B21 bombers\u2014Barksdale AFB, in Louisiana, Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, and Dyess AFB in Texas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

100 tactical bombs are currently stored <\/a>in underground vaults in five NATO countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The U.S stockpile was created soon after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs ended World War II, as Los Alamos continued to hand-fashion new bombs demanded by the military.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. stockpile was created soon after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs ended World War II, as Los Alamos continued to hand-fashion new bombs demanded by the military. In November 1945 Sen. Edwin Johnson, D-Colorado,\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0\u201cvision and guts and plenty of bombs (to) compel mankind to adopt a policy of lasting peace or be burned to a crisp.\u201d By 1946 the United States had nine bombs and was producing two a month. By 1949 when the Russians exploded their first bomb, the United States had 100, according to a 1995 history compiled by\u00a0The Denver Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe stockpile we have (composition, capabilities, numbers) is the product of eighty years of reacting, thinking, arguing, posturing, planning,\u201d Kristensen tells The Progressive<\/em>. \u201cAlthough most people tend to say we have them to deter adversaries, the reality is much more complex. While part is about trying to deter adversaries from using nukes in the first place, most of the requirements actually come from what happens AFTER deterrence has failed: what do you have to destroy to achieve which objectives to win the war? And that\u2019s where there are several schools of thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source:- https:\/\/progressive.org\/latest\/we-now-know-the-full-extent-carrier-20240806\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently declassified stockpile numbers underscore a continuing arms race. On July 20, the United States revealed that it has 3,748 nuclear warheads in its military stockpile. These are weapons that are ready to use, with estimated yields that range from 8 kilotons to more than 300 kilotons. Hiroshima, by comparison, was destroyed with one 20-kiloton bomb. Declassifying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[58,2386,2388,105,2389,40,2391,2390,2387],"class_list":["post-6486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-america","tag-arms","tag-deployments","tag-geopolitics-2","tag-global-tenson","tag-us","tag-us-war-ambitions","tag-us-war-machines","tag-weapons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6489,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6486\/revisions\/6489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}