The size of U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles grew significantly over the last six months, according to the latest New START Treaty data released by the State Department this week. The Oct. 1 declaration reveals that the U.S. had 1,642 deployed warheads under the treaty’s counting rules as of Sept. 1, an increase of 57 warheads from its April 1 declaration. Russia’s deployed nuclear arsenal grew even more substantially, and with 1,643 warheads, Russia’s stockpile was larger than the U.S. stockpile for the first time since the countries began declaring the size of their stockpiles under the New START Treaty in February of 2011. Russia’s deployed stockpile was 1,512 warheads six months ago, and hit a low of 1,400 accountable warheads a year ago. 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 number of delivery vehicles (bombers, ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles) declared by each country also increased. The U.S. said it had 794 delivery vehicles, up 16 from six months ago, and Russia said 528 delivery vehicles were deployed, an increase of 30 from 498 a year ago. The U.S. said it had 912 deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles, while Russia said it had 911.
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