The Enduring Stockpile is the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
' arsenal of
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s following the end of the
Cold War.
During the Cold War the United States produced over 70,000 nuclear weapons. By its end, the U.S. stockpile was about 23,000 weapons of 26 different types. The production of nuclear weapons ended in 1989, and since then existing weapons have been retired, dismantled, or
mothballed. , the Enduring Stockpile consisted of about 9,600 weapons of 10 types. , about 3,000 of those weapons had been moved to the lowest readiness level, in which they are not dismantled, but are no longer in active service. In 2021, the Department of Energy website stated the stockpile was the lowest it had been since 1960.
Weapons in the Enduring Stockpile are categorized by level of readiness. The three levels are:
* Active Service: fully operational, connected to a delivery system, and available for immediate use (e.g.,
ICBM silos and
ballistic missile submarines)
* Hedge Stockpile: fully operational, but kept in storage; available within minutes or hours; not connected to delivery systems, but delivery systems are available (e.g., missile and bomb stockpiles kept at various Air Force bases)
* Inactive Reserve: not in operational condition and/or do not have immediately available delivery systems, but can be made ready if needed.
In 2004, the stockpile included 5,886
strategic warheads and 1,120
tactical weapons
A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territo ...
. The strategic weapons included 1,490
ICBM warheads, 2,736
submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads, 1,660 bomber weapons such as strategic
B61 and
B83 gravity bombs
An unguided bomb, also known as a free-fall bomb, gravity bomb, dumb bomb, or iron bomb, is a conventional or nuclear aircraft-delivered bomb that does not contain a guidance system and hence simply follows a ballistic trajectory. This describ ...
,
AGM-86 ALCM
The AGM-86 ALCM is an American subsonic air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) built by Boeing and operated by the United States Air Force. This missile was developed to increase the effectiveness and survivability of the Boeing B-52H Stratofortre ...
and several hundred spare warheads. The tactical weapons consist of 800 tactical B61 gravity bombs and 320 nuclear warheads for
Tomahawk missile
The Tomahawk () Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is primarily used by the United States Navy and Royal Navy in ship and submarine-based land-attack operations.
Under contract fr ...
s.
The
START II Treaty called for a reduction to a total of 3,500 to 3,000 warheads, but was not ratified by the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n
Duma. The replacement 2002
Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty
The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT), also known as the Treaty of Moscow, was a strategic arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia that was in fo ...
delayed reductions to 2012, with a limit of 2,200 operationally deployed warheads. The
New START treaty signed in 2010 commits to lowering that limit to 1,550 warheads, and was ratified by the Russian Duma on 26 January 2011.
See also
*
Stockpile stewardship
*
Nuclear weapons and the United States
The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them in combat, with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Before and during the Cold War, it conducted 1,054 nucle ...
*
Reliable Replacement Warhead The Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) was a proposed new American nuclear warhead design and bomb family that was intended to be simple, reliable and to provide a long-lasting, low-maintenance future nuclear force for the United States. Initiated ...
*
Stockpile
*
Fogbank
Fogbank is a code name given to a material used in the W76, W78 and W88 nuclear warheads that are part of the United States nuclear arsenal.
Fogbank's precise nature is classified; in the words of former Oak Ridge general manager Dennis Ruddy, ...
References
External links
Nuclear Weapon Archive article on Enduring Stockpile
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180713034238/http://es.rice.edu/projects/Poli378/Nuclear/f04.stratg_invent.html , date=2018-07-13
Nuclear weapons of the United States