The United States is continuing to move toward getting under the 1,550-warhead cap established by the New START Treaty, reporting that it had 1,654 strategic deployed warheads under the treaty’s counting rules as of March 1, the State Department said yesterday. The stockpile total represents a 68-warhead decrease from the last time the U.S. and Russia released twice-a-year declarations required under the arms control treaty. Russia’s strategic deployed stockpile decreased by 19 warheads, from 1,499 to 1,480, after actually rising during the previous six-month period. The U.S. also slightly decreased the number of delivery vehicles (nuclear-capable bombers, ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles) to 792, 14 fewer than it had six months ago, while the number of Russian delivery vehicles actually increased by one, going from 491 to 492. The treaty allows 700 deployed delivery vehicles, and a total of 800 delivery vehicles, counting reserve systems. In total, the U.S. has 1,028 delivery vehicles, while Russia has 900. The U.S. and Russia must be beneath the treaty’s limits by 2018.
U.S. DOWN TO 1,654 WARHEADS UNDER NEW START TREATY
Y-12 completes B61-13 canned subassembly production early
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Thursday its Y-12 National Security Complex has completed production and acceptance testing of the B61-13’s canned subassemblies, finishing the work roughly seven months ahead of schedule. The milestone fulfills a timeline NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams projected in an August interview with Exchange Monitor, when he said the remaining […]