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Who has more nuclear weapons, the US or Russia?
With the latest movements in the Ukraine war, here’s a look at who has the largest arsenal.
The last days of Joe Biden’s presidency won’t be spent on the beach. The outgoing leader of the United States of America thumped his fist on the table and authorised Ukraine to use American-made ballistic missiles inside Russia, who illegally invaded the eastern European nation 1,000 days ago.
The leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin, responded to the move from the U.S. by stating that the bar has been lowered when it comes to the use of nuclear weapons in the war.
Russian statement on Tuesday 19 Nov 2024:
“The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear weapons or other types of weapons of mass destruction against itself or its allies, as well as in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus – as participants of the Union State – with conventional weapons that pose a critical threat to their sovereignty or territorial integrity.”
That begs the question: what happens if Russia uses nuclear weapons? Does the US have the capability to match or beat them?
At the present moment, the United States of America can fire nuclear weapons from land, air and sea. Various silos hold nuclear weapons underground, while B2 Spirit Stealth Bombers and Ohio-class submarines can attack from above and below, respectively.
Russia, meanwhile, has an extra way of attacking. While all American nuclear weapons fired from ground level are in fixed silo locations across the country, Russia can fire nuclear weapons from vehicles that can move position to avoid round-the-clock detection.
Which country has the most nuclear weapons?
According to Annie Jacobsen’s terrifying book entitled ‘Nuclear War’, which gives a harrowing account of events were a war using nuclear weapons to break out, “the United States currently has 1,770 deployed nuclear weapons, the majority of which are on ready-for-launch status, with thousands more held in reserve, for a total inventory of more than 5,000 warheads”.
Russia, Jacobsen adds, “has 1,674 deployed nuclear weapons“, and ”a total inventory that is roughly the same size as the U.S.‘s".
The other main adversary of the United States, North Korea, is estimated to have around 50 nuclear bombs, and is “understood to maintain the world’s largest chemical weapons stockpile anywhere in the world - 5,000 tons' worth - much of it preloaded onto rockets”.
North Korea, like Russia, store their nuclear arsenal on specialised vehicles, making their locations hard to keep track of.
However, despite the numbers, a nuclear war is not who has the biggest arsenal, nor who has the highest killing potential. Nobody wins in a nuclear war, not one single person. Everybody suffers as society collapses, infrastructure is torn to shreds, as nothing remains. The bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima killed 80,000 people; in a nuclear war today, that number would be in the billions.
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