U.S., RUSSIA UPDATE STOCKPILE INFO UNDER NEW START TREATY

The United States is continuing to slowly reduce its strategic deployed nuclear stockpile under the New START Treaty’s counting rules, according to the twice yearly exchange of data released about U.S. and Russian weapons required under the New START Treaty. As of March 1, the U.S. has 1,737 strategic deployed nuclear warheads, the State Department said in a release yesterday, down from 1,790 six months ago and 1,800 a year ago. Russia reduced the size of its strategic deployed stockpile to 1,492, below the 1,550-warhead ceiling established by the treaty, after going over the cap with 1,566 warheads in the last exchange of data between the two countries six months ago. The U.S. also had 812 delivery vehicles (nuclear-capable bombers, ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles), 10 less than it had Sept. 1, while Russia has reduced its delivery vehicles by 22 over six months to 494. The treaty allows 700 deployed delivery vehicles, and a total of 800 counting reserve systems. In total, the U.S. has 1,040 delivery vehicles, while Russia has 881. The U.S. and Russia must be beneath the treaty’s limits by 2018.