By Hans M. Kristensen During the past two years, the Russian military has carried out a major renovation of what appears to be an active nuclear weapons storage site in the Kaliningrad region, about 50 kilometers from the Polish border. A Digital Globe satellite image purchased via Getty Images, and several other satellite images viewable […]
By Hans M. Kristensen [Note: On February 22nd, the US State Department published updated numbers instead of relying on September 2017 numbers. This blog and tables have been updated accordingly.] Seven years after the New START treaty between Russia and the United States entered into force in 2011, the treaty entered into effect on February […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The United States has now reached the limits for all three weapons categories under the New START treaty. The latest data published by the State Department shows that the United States for the first time since the treaty entered into force in 2011 has reached the limit of 800 deployed and […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The U.S. Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) has quietly published a corrected report on the world’s Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threats that deletes a previously identified Russian ground-launched cruise missile. The earlier version, published on June 26, 2017, identified a “ground” version of the 3M-14 land-attack cruise […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson AFB has updated and published its periodic Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat report. The new report updates the previous version from 2013. At a time when public government intelligence resources are being curtailed, the NASIC report provides a rare and invaluable […]
The Defense Intelligence Agency yesterday launched a new series of unclassified publications on foreign military threats to the United States with a report on the Russian military. “The resurgence of Russia on the world stage — seizing the Crimean Peninsula, destabilizing eastern Ukraine, intervening on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and shaping the information […]
When President Trump disclosed classified intelligence information to Russian officials last week, did he commit a crime? Considering that the President is the author of the national security classification system, and that he is empowered to determine who gets access to classified information, it seems obvious that the answer is No. His action might have […]
Updated below President Trump’s disclosure of classified intelligence information to Russian officials, reported by the Washington Post, may have been reckless, damaging and irresponsible. But it was not a crime. Disclosures of classified information are not categorically prohibited by law. Even intelligence sources and methods are only required to be protected under the National Security […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The latest set of New START aggregate data released by the US State Department shows that Russia is decreasing its number of deployed strategic warheads while the United States is increasing the number of warheads it deploys on its strategic forces. The Russian reduction, which was counted as of March 1, […]
In confronting Russia and rebutting its claims, the United States is hampered by unnecessary or inappropriate classification of national security information, according to former Pentagon official and Russia specialist Evelyn Farkas. “We are not very good at declassifying and reclassifying information that is not propaganda, showing pictures of what the Russians are doing,” Dr. Farkas […]
By Hans M. Kristensen Republicans love nuclear weapons reductions, as long as they’re not proposed by a Democratic president. That is the lesson from decades of US nuclear weapons and arms control management. If that trend continues, then we can expect the new Donald Trump administration to reduce the US nuclear weapons arsenal more than […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The latest set of so-called New START treaty aggregate data published by the U.S. State Department shows that Russia is continuing to increase the number of nuclear warheads it deploys on its declining inventory of strategic launchers. Russia now has 259 warheads more deployed than when the treaty entered into force in […]