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U.S. and Russian Arms Control Treaty Limits and Current Nuclear Stockpiles

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by John Isaacs [contact information]

July 16, 2009

Deployed Strategic Delivery Vehicles Deployed Strategic Warheads
START Follow-On Limits Announced by Obama and Medvedev[1] 500-1,100 1,500-1,675
Deployed strategic delivery vehicles according to existing START counting rules (as of January 1, 2009) Deployed strategic warheads according to existing START counting rules (as of January 1, 2009)
Russia[2] 814 3,909
United States[3] 1,198 5,576
Actual deployed strategic delivery vehicles (as of 2009) Actual deployed strategic warheads (as of 2009)
Russia[4] ~620 ~2,787
United States[5] ~800 ~2,200

1. Joint Understanding for the START Follow-on Treaty, White House Office of the Press Secretary (July 6, 2009).

2. START Aggregate Numbers of Strategic Offensive Arms, Bureau of Verification, Compliance, and Implementation, (April 1, 2009).

3. Ibid.

4. Robert Norris and Hans Kristensen, “Nuclear Notebook: Russian Nuclear Forces, 2009,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May/June 2009).

5. Norris and Kristensen, “Nuclear Notebook: U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2009,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (March/April 2009).

John Isaacs 202-546-0795 ext. 2222 jdi@armscontrolcenter.org

John Isaacs is the Executive Director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation where his work focuses on national security issues in Congress, Iraq, missile defense, and nuclear weapons. Isaacs has published articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Christian Science Monitor, Nuclear Times, Arms Control Today, American Journal of Public Health, and Technology Review.