Enduring Stockpile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The "Enduring Stockpile" is the name of the United States's arsenal of nuclear weapons 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.' As of 2001 the Enduring Stockpile consisted of about 9,600 weapons of 10 types. As of 2004 about 3,000 of those weapons had been moved to the lowest readiness level (not dismantled, but no longer in active service).
Weapons in the Enduring Stockpile are categorized by level of readiness. The three levels are:
- Active Service: Fully operational and connected to delivery systems
- "Hedge" Stockpile: Fully operational (or can be made so on short notice) but kept in storage; not connected to delivery systems, but delivery systems are available
- Inactive Reserve: Basically intact, but not in operational condition and/or do not have immediately available delivery systems.
The stockpile includes 5,886 strategic warheads and 1,120 non-strategic weapons. The strategic weapons include 1,490 ICBM warheads, 2,736 submarine launched ballistic missile warheads, 1,660 bomber weapons (strategic B61 and B83 gravity bombs, ALCM, and AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles), and several hundred spare warheads. The tactical weapons consist of 800 tactical B61 gravity bombs and 320 nuclear warheads for Tomahawk missiles.
The START II Treaty called for a reduction to a total of 3,000 to 3,500 warheads, but was not ratified by the Russian Duma. The replacement 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty delayed reductions to 2012, with a limit of 2,200 operationally deployed warheads.
