Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
4/04/2014
Over the last six months, the United States has reduced the size of its strategic deployed nuclear stockpile by 103 warheads, while Russia has increased the size of its stockpile, according to the latest New START Treaty data released by the State Department this week. The April 1 declaration reveals that the U.S. had 1,585 warheads under the treaty’s counting rules as of March 1, down from the 1,688 warheads it declared six months ago. After hitting a low of 1,400 attributable warheads, Russia’s stockpile increased to 1,512 under the most recent declaration. Both countries must be under the treaty’s 1,550-warhead cap by 2018. Officials did not provide any reasoning for the increases and decreases nor were details of the changes released.
The U.S. also slightly decreased the number of its delivery vehicles (bombers, ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles) to 778, down from 809 six months ago. The number of Russian delivery vehicles increased by 25 from 473 to 498. “The increase of the Russian count does not indicate that it’s increasing its strategic nuclear forces but reflects fluctuations in the number of launchers and their attributed warheads at the time of the count,” Hans Kristensen, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project, said in an analysis of the stockpile disclosures. “At the time of the previous data release in September 2013, the United States appeared to have increased its forces. But that was also an anomaly reflecting temporary fluctuations in the deployed force.”
Kristensen noted that since the treaty went into force, the United States has cut the size of its strategic stockpile by 215 warheads and 104 launchers, while Russia has trimmed its arsenal by 25 warheads and 23 launchers. In an appearance before the House Armed Services Committee this week, Strategic Command chief Adm. Cecil Haney said the fluctuations in stockpile sizes was unremarkable as a Republican on the committee registered concern. “We’re all working toward our strategic deterrent limit numbers, as I described here relative to the 1,550 warheads for the United States of America as well as for Russia in this arms control agreement,” Haney said. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) said it was “a remarkable situation that we’re decreasing and they are increasing.”
