Nuclear Weapons World Map
March 6, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
Total Inventory of World Nuclear Weapons Stockpile
The image above is a proportional visualization of the total number of nuclear weapons stockpiled by each country of the world. While it may appear that the U.S. and Russia stockpile the vast majority of nukes (which they do), any single one nuclear weapon from any country would turn the world upside down in an instant. The world map does present an interesting visualization.
The following is a nuclear weapons country list of the total number of strategic and non-strategic nuclear weapons in their inventory, as best can be determined.
What are strategic nuclear weapons?
An example of strategic nuclear weapons are those with long range ballistic missiles, a nuclear weapon which is programmed primarily for employment against tactical targets in tactical military operations.
What are non-strategic nuclear weapons?
Non-strategic nuclear weapons typically refer to short-range weapons, including land-based missiles with a range of about 300 miles and air-and-sea launched weapons with a range of less than 400 miles.
12,000 (Russia)
9,400 (USA)
300 (France)
240 (China)
225 (UK)
90 (Pakistan)
80 (India)
80 (Israel)
10 (N. Korea)
The nuclear weapons data is primarily from reports made by two experts, Hans Kristensen and Dr. Robert Norris, who have been publishing their findings in ‘The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ and can be sourced in the following links.
Russian Nuclear Forces, 2010
U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2010
French Nuclear Forces, 2010
Chinese Nuclear Forces, 2010
British Nuclear Forces, 2010
Israeli Nuclear Forces, 2010
Pakistani Nuclear Forces, 2010
Indian Nuclear Forces, 2010
About Hans M. Kristensen
Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists where he provides the public with analysis and background information about the status of nuclear forces and the role of nuclear weapons. He specializes in using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in his research and is a frequent consultant to and is widely referenced in the news media on the role and status of nuclear weapons.
About Dr. Robert S. Norris
Senior research associate with NRDC in Washington, D.C. His principal areas of expertise include all aspects of the nuclear weapons programs of the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
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Just goes to show corrupt bankers/pollies/industrialist/arms dealers have been using an awful lot of their nations’ tax dollars to launder their drug money via arms purchases… so you see the great stockpiles caused by money laundering
Two points. 1)Many of Russia’s nukes are 50 times larger then our nukes. Not exactly a one to one equivalence. 2)I suspect that very early on Russia began hiding the facts about their nuclear weapons just so they could bargain away our advantage. I would not be suprised if Russia had twice as many as publicly acknowledged.
I would reiterate what GoneWithTheWind says about Russia’s nukes. I’m quite sure that theirs are not THAT much (50 times) as big as ours on average, but that they hide them is beyond question.
Read Nixon’s book called, “The Real War” – it tells you about the psychology of a leadership that went through WW2 and survived. That the next (i.e. current) generation of leaders learned from them is without question. Further, read some books by Victor Suvorov, in which he describes the Soviet/Russian penchant for hoarding old equipment – the idea being that if most of the modern equipment it destroyed over several months in battle, whomever shows up with lots 1960s or even 1940s era tanks, etc. will win vs. foot soldiers and very limited modern equipment. Only a leadership that went through the Hell of WW2 on the Eastern Front could devote enormous resources to storing all of that equipment. You had better bet that the Russians/Soviets (a tiger doesn’t change its stripes) have secreted away many hundreds of nukes and delivery systems. If a few ancient tanks can turn the tide of a battle and/or war, what of nuclear weapons?
I just hope and pray that our military leadership is as devious as our investment bankers, because if not then we will lose to the Russians not too long after our economy collapses and we can no longer afford our gee-whiz equipment.
Was looking at this older article and the one figure that I feel is way off is what China has. I think that the world vastly underestimates just how dangerous China really is. China has had nuclear weapons since the mid 60′s and a country such as China knows that nuclear weapons are an absolute necessity with a war with the United States. There were estimates of China having as many as 400 nukes in 1980, 31 years ago. China is an extremely secert country, it is more like 3000-4000 or more nuclear weapons. The money spent on their military is also probably 5-10 times as much as they “state”. Like Japan in World War 2, people were surprised by how much military they had. China is the one country that worries me the most because they can totally destroy the United States and because they are not predictable. The Russians actually are much more predictable.