The American State Department on Tuesday revealed the number of nuclear bombs and warheads stockpiled in the US. This reveals comes for the first time after former president Donald Trump decided to blackout the data.
All about the US’ collection of nuclear bombs
As of September 2020, the US military has a total New Beginnings of 3,750 nuclear warheads. The figure is 55 lower than that of 2019 and 72 less than September 2017. Moreover, the number of nuclear bombs is the lowest since the country’s peak nuclear warhead numbers during the Cold War period. After all back then, the US had a massive total of 31,255.
“Increasing the transparency of states’ nuclear stockpiles is important to nonproliferation and disarmament efforts,” stated the State Department. The effort for releasing these numbers on Tuesday was a part of the Biden administration restarting talks with Russia on arms control. After all, Trump pulled the United States from Iran’s nuclear deal. Trump also pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia. Additionally, this left the New Start Treaty on rocks before its expiry on February 5. Moreover, Trump’s plans included China, a country with fewer warheads than Russia and the US.
New Beginnings
President Biden, after coming to office on January 20, was quick in proposing a five-year-long extension to New STart. Moreover, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president agreed to it, making it a successful attempt. The New Start caps the number of nuclear bombs held by both Russia and the US. Letting the treaty expire would have a stark effect and lead to a reversal of warhead reductions in both the US and Russian soils.
The current deal caps the number of nuclear warheads to a total of 1,5500 which can be deployed by both nations. Last week, diplomats from both countries held talks in Geneva. This sparked the start of discussions on the New Start and the control of weapons.