The State of Russian Nuclear Disarmament

Russia continues to reduce its nuclear arsenal, but still deploys about 2,790 hydrogen bombs on long-range missiles and bombers. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists released an updated “Nuclear Notebook” on Russian nuclear forces, written by Robert Norris and Hans Kristensen - both Ploughshares grantees.

Since last year, Russia reduced its deployment of strategic weapons from 3,113 to 2,787. It has about 4,830 nuclear warheads total in its operational arsenal, including 2,050 “nonstrategic” warheads on short-range missiles, bombers and ships. It is estimated that Russia has an additional 8,150 warheads in reserve or awaiting dismantlement, for a total stockpile of approximately 13,000 warheads.

There is room for substantial further cuts. The new report suggests that Russian strategic nuclear forces will continue to decrease over the next decade as it further disarms and shifts its strategic forces toward a SSBN force. In his April 1 joint declaration with President Barack Obama, President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia would seek to reduce its strategic forces below 2,200 warheads, the upper limit set by the 2002 US-Russia arms control treaty.

The Bulletin’s report said that Russia could easily reduce down to fewer than 1000-1500 deployed strategic warheads—as some have proposed—by simply not equipping its 383 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with multiple warheads (MIRVs) and significantly cutting its bomber force. These missiles currently carry 1355 warheads. Russia also fields 160 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) that carry 576 warheads.

Track the global stockpiles and read nuclear notebooks for the other nuclear powers on the Ploughshares webpage – World Nuclear Stockpile Report