Our Global Risk team focuses on addressing and preventing the events and threats that could permanently cripple or destroy humanity. Among them: nuclear war, the next global pandemic, biological attack, and even a collision with a massive near-earth object. Humanity must proactively develop and pursue sound policies to protect against these dangers, including through global cooperation.
The SIPRI chapter describes the nuclear weapon modernization programs underway in each nuclear-armed state and provides estimates for how many nuclear warheads each country possesses.
FAS researchers Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda with the Nuclear Information Project write in the new SIPRI Yearbook 2024, released today.
The total number of U.S. nuclear warheads are now estimated to include 1,770 deployed warheads, 1,938 reserved for operational forces. An additional 1,336 retired warheads are awaiting dismantlement, for a total inventory of 5,044 warheads.
A military depot in central Belarus has recently been upgraded with additional security perimeters and an access point that indicate it could be intended for housing Russian nuclear warheads for Belarus’ Russia-supplied Iskander missile launchers.
Despite progress in reducing nuclear weapon arsenals since the Cold War, the world’s combined inventory of nuclear warheads remains at a very high level.
The Nuclear Information Project provides the public with reliable information about the status and trends of the nuclear weapons arsenals of the world’s nuclear-armed countries.
The FAS Nuclear Notebook is one of the most widely sourced reference materials worldwide for reliable information about the status of nuclear weapons.
To empower new voices to start their career in nuclear weapons studies, we’re pairing emerging leaders with a senior academic or policy expert to co-author a research project that provides a creative perspective on nuclear deterrence policy.
