Russia and the United States together control about 90% of the world's nuclear weapons.
Russia's large-scale nuclear exercises and its choice to deploy systems in Belarus have once again drawn attention to Moscow's stockpiles of tactical nuclear weapons.
Edition Newsweek has analyzed how Russia's tactical nuclear weapons arsenal compares to the US's.
The head of the British Armed Forces, Admiral Tony Radakin, said earlier that there are huge threats of tactical use of nuclear weapons, and NATO countries are facing the dawn of a third nuclear era.
Russia and the United States together control about 90% of the world's nuclear weapons. These are strategic and non-strategic or tactical nuclear weapons. Unlike strategic weapons, tactical nuclear weapons are designed for use on the battlefield or so-called specific theater of military operations.
Strategic nuclear weapons are limited under the New START Treaty, which expires in 2026. Strategic nuclear weapons are deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bomber-launched missiles. They are considered missiles that can level entire cities and threaten the world's great superpowers.
“The implication is that [tactical weapons] would cause less damage,” said the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. But the yield of these warheads could reach 300 kilotons, which is 20 times greater than that of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, the organization added.
How many tactical nuclear weapons does Russia have?
Earlier this year, Washington confirmed preliminary estimates of Russia's non-strategic nuclear weapons stockpiles, putting their number at between 1,000 and 2,000 warheads.
Russia is not required to disclose its stockpiles of tactical nuclear weapons, unlike the number of strategic nuclear weapons.
“Russia has an active stockpile of up to “2,000 non-strategic nuclear warheads,” the US estimated in 2022.
Among the tactical nuclear weapons stockpiles are gravity bombs, surface-to-air missiles, missile defense systems, torpedoes, nuclear mines, and nuclear warheads that can be launched by Russia's conventional and nuclear warhead systems.
Earlier this year, the Federation of American Scientists estimated that Russia has 1,558 non-strategic nuclear warheads.
Many of the weapons systems used to launch tactical nuclear weapons can also be used for conventional operations or missions that do not involve nuclear weapons.
“While Russia initially followed America's lead and similarly sharply reduced its strategic nuclear forces, it has retained a large number of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review estimates. in 2018, written during the first Trump administration. “Today, Russia is modernizing these weapons, as well as its other strategic systems.”
What the U.S. Tactical Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Looks Like?
In April, the State Department said the Biden administration, like previous administrations, believes the U.S. needs to “neither match nor emulate” Russia's tactical weapons stockpile.
The U.S. is estimated to have 200 tactical nuclear weapons, with about half of them stationed at European bases. The US is believed to have about 100 tactical bombs deployed in five NATO countries on the continent, including Turkey, Germany and Belgium.
Earlier, the White House commented on the possibility of Ukraine acquiring nuclear weapons.
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