Which Countries Have the Biggest and Deadliest Nuclear Arsenals?

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s 2022 Yearbook, Russia has a total of 5,977 nuclear warheads in its inventory, including 1,588 deployed warheads, and 2,889 stored warheads (i.e. those which could be prepared to fire after some preparations), plus warheads which have been mothballed and prepared to be dismantled.

SIPRI estimates that the United States has 1,744 deployed warheads, 1,964 stored warheads, and a total inventory of 5,428 in its arsenal.

Both nuclear superpowers have reduced their total inventory of nukes since 2021 (by 278 bombs in Russia’s case and by 122 in America’s). Unfortunately, a recent scientific study found that even as few as one hundred 1-megaton bombs could cause enough fiery destruction to trigger a 'nuclear winter' that would kill billions of people. The concept of nuclear winter was first popularized by Dr. Carl Sagan in the 1980s to dismiss the folly of US President Ronald Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ defense umbrella idea, which was meant to allow Washington to fight and win a nuclear war against the Soviet Union.

Other countries with nuclear arsenals include China (350), France (290), Britain (225), Pakistan (165), India (160), Israel (90, allegedly), and North Korea (20). Russia, the US, China and India have a nuclear triad – i.e. the capability to launch nuclear attacks using ground, air and sea-launched weapons systems.

The Russian RS-28 Sarmat is arguably the most powerful nuclear delivery system today. The 208-ton super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missile can carry 10-15 multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), which could include both nuclear bombs and dummy targets designed to fool missile defenses. It can also carry maneuverable nuclear-capable Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles to make certain that no one risks the foolhardy idea of trying to decapitate Russia’s leadership or knock out its strategic command system using Prompt Global Strike.

Amid recently-voiced Russian concerns about the Zelensky government having the technology and resources to build a dirty bomb to stage a false flag to accuse Moscow of nuking Ukrainian territory, it’s worth recalling that Ukraine was once a major nuclear power in its own right, at least on paper.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine found itself in possession of a full third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, plus facilities for the development and production of nukes and delivery systems. An 1992 estimate figured that Kiev had about 1,700 warheads, nearly 200 MIRV-equipped ICBMs, and 38 strategic bombers.

But the country never had the launch codes, which remained in Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s hands until 1996, when the last warhead in Ukraine’s possession was transferred to Russia. Ukraine gave up its nukes after signing the Budapest Memorandum – a 1994 treaty guaranteeing Kiev’s security in exchange for its renunciation of nuclear weapons. The agreement was undercut in February 2014 by the US-sponsored coup in Kiev, and has hinged on the brink of collapse since February 2022, when President Zelensky threatened to quit the treaty.

A large portion of the Russian and American nuclear deterrent is based aboard the countries’ nuclear missile-launching submarines, also known as ‘boomer’ subs. The US boomer sub fleet consists of 14 Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, with each sub having enough firepower to destroy 96 cities. Russia has 10 nuclear-armed ballistic missile subs in its fleet – five of the Delta-class and five Borei/Borei-A-class vessels. The latter are equipped with 16 R-30 Bulava missiles, each able to carry between six and ten warheads.

The United States is the only nation in history to have ever used nuclear weapons in warfare, killing as many as 226,000 people in the nuclear bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. US historians have justified President Harry Truman’s decision to bomb the cities with the fearsome weapons based on the projected casualties the US would have suffered if it had launched an invasion of the Japanese Islands.

In Soviet and Russian historiography, historians have argued that the atomic bombings were in part meant to send a message to Moscow of America’s newfound superweapon, and in part a strategy aimed at preventing the USSR from occupying post-war Japan in a manner similar to post-war Germany.

In 1950 at the height of the Korean War, US Commander Douglas MacArthur asked Washington for permission to use nuclear weapons on the battlefield if his armies were routed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In December of that year, MacArthur requested between 26 and 34 nuclear bombs for the mission. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the authorization was never given.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday calling on the world’s major nuclear powers to do everything in their power to avoid an escalation and prevent weapons of mass destruction from ever being used.

Moscow also reiterated that in accordance with Russia’s nuclear doctrine, the country will not use nuclear weapons unless it is attacked using WMDs, or faces conventional aggression so severe it puts the very existence of the state in jeopardy.