Newsweek: A comparison between the Russian and American stockpiles of tactical nuclear weapons

Newsweek magazine compared Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons stockpiles with those of the United States in a report published by security and defense correspondent Ellie Cook.

The report stated that Russia’s massive nuclear exercises, and its choice to deploy nuclear systems in Belarus, have put Moscow’s tactical nuclear stockpile back in the spotlight.

“We’ve seen a wild pattern of threats from Russia using tactical nuclear weapons and large-scale nuclear exercises, simulating attacks against NATO countries,” Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the British armed forces, said earlier this month.

“All of this is designed to force us not to take the action needed to maintain stability,” Radkin said in a speech in London.

He added that NATO countries were staring at the dawn of the third nuclear age, following an earlier era of disarmament and counterproliferation that followed the first explosion of nuclear arms races during the Cold War.

Russia and the United States together control nearly 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons.

This includes both strategic and tactical non-strategic nuclear weapons.

Unlike strategic weapons, tactical nuclear weapons are designed for use on the battlefield, or in a specific theater.

They are less powerful and designed for use against different targets than strategic nuclear weapons, which are limited by the New START treaty, which is set to expire in 2026.

Strategic nuclear weapons are deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and missiles launched from bombers.

They are seen as missiles capable of destroying entire cities and threatening global superpowers.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons had previously stated that this implies that these warheads will cause less damage.

But the organization added that these warheads are capable of producing an explosive force of up to 300 kilotons, or twenty times the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

While strategic nuclear weapons are limited under the New START Treaty, tactical nuclear warheads are not limited under any international agreement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has transferred Iskander-M tactical missile systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads to its main ally Belarus.

Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko said in mid-2023 that these tactical nuclear weapons include bombs three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the United States used on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and Putin said Russia had retained control over them.

Russian officials have also openly warned of the possibility of a nuclear conflict over Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, now approaching its third year.

Moscow has conducted several rounds of tactical nuclear weapons drills this year, including last May, in response to what the Kremlin called provocative statements and threats from Western officials, and has regularly conducted drills of strategic nuclear weapons.

The United States said that deterring Russia from using limited nuclear weapons in a regional conflict is a top priority for the United States and NATO.

How many tactical nuclear weapons does Russia have?

Earlier this year, Washington reiterated its previous estimates of Russia’s non-strategic nuclear weapons stockpile, putting the number at between 1,000 and 2,000 warheads.

The 2022 US report estimated that Russia has an active stockpile of up to 2,000 non-strategic nuclear warheads.

Russia isn’t required to disclose its tactical nuclear weapons inventory, unlike its strategic nuclear weapons inventory.

Experts estimate that in 2022, Russia possesses about 1,912 non-strategic nuclear warheads, and possibly fewer, intended for delivery by air, sea, land, and various defense forces.

This number may include weapons that are being dismantled or decommissioned.

The Federation of American Scientists estimated Russia’s non-strategic nuclear warheads earlier this year at 1,558.

Tactical nuclear weapons stockpiles include gravity bombs, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-ballistic missile systems, torpedoes, nuclear mines, as well as nuclear warheads that can be launched by Russian systems equipped for conventional and nuclear payloads.

Many of the weapon systems used to deliver tactical nuclear weapons can also be used in conventional operations or missions that don’t involve nuclear weapons.

“While Russia has followed the United States in making similarly sharp reductions in its strategic nuclear forces, it has retained significant numbers of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” the 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review, written during the first Trump administration, said.

“Today, Russia is modernizing these weapons as well as its other strategic systems”.

But what is most troubling is Russia’s adoption of military strategies and capabilities that rely on nuclear escalation to achieve success.

What does the US tactical nuclear weapons stockpile look like?

The US State Department said last April that the Biden administration, like other US administrations, assessed that the United States didn’t need to match or imitate Russia’s tactical weapons stockpile.

The United States estimates it has about 200 tactical nuclear weapons, about half of which are deployed at European bases.

The United States is believed to have about 100 tactical bombs deployed in five NATO member states in Europe, including Türkiye, Germany and Belgium.