This information had not been accessible for four years. The administration of Joe Biden has decided to reverse Donald Trump’s decision to classify the figures of the American nuclear arsenal as a defense secret. Washington thus revealed, Tuesday, October 5, that the United States held 3,750 nuclear warheads as of September 30, 2020.
“The United States publishes new declassified information on the American nuclear arsenal, in order to update information published in September 2017”, the State Department said in a statement.
“Transparency on the arsenals of nuclear states is important for non-proliferation and disarmament efforts, including commitments to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty”, adds American diplomacy.
Since September 30, 2017, the United States has continued to modernize its nuclear arsenal, dismantling 711 nuclear warheads, but reducing their total number to only 72, according to new official figures.
America’s 3,750 nuclear warheads represent an 88% reduction in the United States’ nuclear arsenal from its high of 31,255 warheads, reached in 1967, at the height of the Cold War.
2,000 additional heads awaiting dismantling
The official figure for the American arsenal includes active (operational and deployed, or rapidly deployable) and inactive (non-operational and in depot) heads, but not so-called “withdrawn” heads because they are obsolete. We must therefore add some 2,000 nuclear warheads awaiting dismantling.
The figures come as the Biden administration reached an agreement with Russia to set up a task force on future arms control measures for those that remain the two largest nuclear powers.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, whose figures include so-called “withdrawn” nuclear warheads, Russia had 6,255 nuclear weapons in January 2021, compared to 5,550 for the United States and barely 350 for the United States. China.
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