Asia-Pacific
US says nuclear arsenal includes 5,113 warheads
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-04 14:35
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WASHINGTON - The United States disclosed for the first time on Monday the current size of its nuclear arsenal, saying it had a total of 5,113 warheads operationally deployed, kept in active reserve and held in inactive storage.
 US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) conference at United Nations headquarters, Monday, May 3, 2010. [Agencies] |
According to figures released by the Pentagon, the US nuclear arsenal has been reduced by 84 percent from its maximum level of 31,225 warheads at the end of fiscal year 1967.
By releasing the data during the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, analysts said the United States was trying to show it is cutting its arsenal so as to help persuade other states to tighten the global nonproliferation regime.
The total disclosed by the Pentagon does not include the number of warheads that have been retired and scheduled for dismantlement, an estimated 4,600 according to the Federation of American Scientists nonprofit group.
Washington had previously disclosed its operationally deployed strategic warheads -- 1,968 at the end of 2009, down from about 10,000 in 1991 according to the State Department -- but it had not released the overall total.
The NPT is designed to halt the spread of atomic weapons and encourage the elimination of existing arsenals.
"It is hugely important for the United States to be able to say, 'look we are living up to our obligations under the NPT," said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.
Kristensen said the United States had to impress other nations that it is living up to its end of the NPT bargain or "it's going to be very hard to get them to agree to new measures to try to limit proliferation."
However, analysts said that the disclosure could cut both ways -- possibly dismaying other nations by demonstrating how many thousands of nuclear weapons the United States retains two decades after the Cold War ended.
"I think the states that are most concerned about nuclear disarmament will be more focused on the number that remain rather than the number (reduced)," said George Perkovich, director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Historically, the overall size of the US nuclear arsenal has been kept secret to help prevent potential adversaries from using the information to more precisely neutralize US nuclear forces, analysts said, saying the stance was a Cold War relic.
