Reducing Nuclear Arsenals: U.S. and Russia Hold More than Necessary for Deterrence
Homeland Security Digital Library Blog 2012-12-19
Summary:
Despite reduction of their nuclear arsenals the United States and Russia still maintain 16,000 nuclear warheads. This is 15 times more than the combined total nuclear arsenals of all the seven other nuclear weapon states in the world.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) released a new report Trimming Nuclear Excess: Options for Further Reductions of U.S. and Russian Nuclear Forces. This report describes the status and 10-year projection for U.S. and Russian nuclear forces.
From the FAS website: “The report concludes that the pace of reducing nuclear forces appears to be slowing compared with the past two decades. Both the United States and Russia appear to be more cautious about reducing further, placing more emphasis on 'hedging' and reconstitution of reduced nuclear forces, and both are investing enormous sums of money in modernizing their nuclear forces over the next decade.
Even with the reductions expected over the next decade, the report concludes that the United States and Russia will continue to possess nuclear stockpiles that are many times greater than the rest of the world’s nuclear forces combined.”