land-based ballistic missiles
submarine-launched weaponry and bombs
that can be deployed from aircraft
these are some of the weapons in
russia's vast nuclear arsenal seen here
on display in training drills before
russia launched its invasion of ukraine
the strategic systems they have
intercontinental range and so they can
hit anywhere on the globe while the us
doesn't communicate much on its nuclear
weapons russia has been showcasing its
advances
after president putin ordered moscow's
nuclear deterrence forces to be put on
alert in late february the pentagon said
it had not detected any major new
developments on that front
many analysts say it's unlikely the
weapons will be used in warfare although
it can't be ruled out but moscow could
use its arsenal as a deterrent to
discourage the us and its allies from
taking more action in the ukraine war so
here's what we know about russia's
nuclear inventory the largest in the
world and putin's push to modernize it
when it comes to scale russia and the us
have a similar number of nuclear weapons
according to an estimate by the
federation of american scientists
russia's warhead inventory totals 5977
in comparison the us has 5428
those numbers are similar
also due to international arms control
agreements to limit the size of each
country's nuclear stockpile at the heart
of moscow's arsenal is what military
experts call the nuclear triad the u.s
also has nuclear triad status while
china has been working to achieve the
same advanced version in recent years
in principle russia's weapons can be
delivered by air with strategic bombers
such as the
tu-95ms and tu-160
by its navy with nuclear-powered
ballistic missile submarines and by
land-based ballistic launchers such as
this rs 24 yars the explosive force of
atomic bombs is measured in kilotons and
warheads on these weapons have a power
of as much as 400 kilotons according to
defense analysts
that's more than 25 times the atomic
bomb the us used in hiroshima japan at
the end of world war ii
days after the first bomb was released
another was dropped on nagasaki seen
here in this footage in 1945. it became
the last atomic bomb to be used in
combat since then countries have built
up arsenals as a deterrent for conflict
the u.s and russia created their vast
stockpiles during the cold war
but our restraint
is not inexhaustible more recently and
decades after the end of that cold war
moscow is again touting that its
intercontinental ballistic missiles are
capable of hitting the us in 20 to 30
minutes hans christensen is the director
of the nuclear information project and
has been studying nuclear weapons for
decades he says long-range missiles are
the most powerful elements in russia's
arsenal and if that was released
it could destroy all major cities
the u.s also has missiles capable of
potentially hitting russia within a
similar time frame
in addition both countries have
stockpiles of non-strategic nuclear
weapons which are usually defined as
shorter range delivery systems with
lower yield warheads but analysts note
as the us has been scaling back its
stockpile of these weapons over the last
three decades russia has largely kept
its inventory we think the us is only a
small inventory of a few hundred
tactical nuclear bombs that are left
this has been an important development
in the u.s
arsenal evolution because they used to
have like russia a huge inventory of
non-strategic but they've largely moved
away from that in the u.s
planning
russia is modernizing some soviet aero
weapons which analysts say is a routine
step in order to maintain the readiness
of older tools it's also developing
newer weapons that have been publicized
by russian president vladimir putin and
on russian state tv
zircon is one of six nuclear weapons
putin revealed the country was
developing in march 2018
others included underwater
nuclear-powered uncrewed vehicles and
nuclear-powered global range cruise
missiles
analysts say it's hard to determine what
stage of development they are currently
at
unlike the us russia has been sharing
its nuclear capabilities on state tv and
online media
wary of stoking tensions as war rages in
ukraine u.s officials even canceled a
scheduled weapon test although other
exercises continued
in mid-march the us air force conducted
drills with b-52 bombers capable of
carrying nuclear missiles
but to use nuclear weapons would be a
significant step
some experts say putin may turn to
non-strategic bombs if cornered in this
war however the bar is high for any
potential deployment and it's unlikely
that russia will use them at all
it's one thing to rattle the sword and
warn your adversaries that you have this
capability by doing exercises or
increasing alert or something like that
it's another
it's another step to actually use
nuclear weapons because
once you do all bets are off in terms of
how
destructive this
new phase is going to be the build up
and showcasing of new weapons during the
ukraine war reminds some of the cold war
era a period when the u.s and russia
used ownership of nuclear forces as a
defense amid heightened tensions
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