U.S. reveals it has 5,113 nuclear warheads

U.S. reveals it has 5,113 nuclear warheads

edition.cnn.com

Washington (CNN) -- The United States has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile and many thousands more that have been retired and are awaiting dismantling, according to a senior defense official.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It's pretty wild how we still have this many nukes. You wonder what the practical purpose of that many nuclear devices are, it's kind of funny. Even if we did engage in an all-out nuclear exchange with another country, could we even use all of them?

Funny how we could end the world with about 5% of that number...

edition.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Sorry cap.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by ProUSA


LOL thats 5112 to many

reply to post by ProUSA


They have that many because murder is good business.

Should we trust those numbers? I don't think they'd let the enemy know how many they really have.

take that number and multiply it by 2, more realistically 3.

the US bureaucracy relishes everything in triplicate.

and since it falls within the defense budget, go ahead and make it 5.

the problem is not how many are they, it's where are they placed.

I don't think they're stored in a base in America. They could be distributed in the major cities of the Earth...just in case any of them is needed. =)

reply to post by metalpr

That is true, for starters NATO has what can be referred to as "US warheads". Germany has plenty of US ones too.

We can't let the Iranians build advance their nuclear power plant! They might acquire 1 nuclear weapon some day!!!

Thats a big number, although I had a look around and found this article from 1999.

"U.S. Once Deployed 12,000 Atom Arms in 2 Dozen Nations"

The United States stored 12,000 nuclear weapons and components in at least 23 countries and 5 American territories during the cold war, according to an article based on a recently declassified document. The sites included Morocco, Japan, Iceland, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

Link
Don't know how credible that source was, but if you think about it there may still be a great deal of warheads spread across the globe. Although they said they reduced their stockpile by 75% over the last decades, I'm not sure if I believe that.

[edit on 4-5-2010 by Clairaudience]

Originally posted by Misoir
We can't let the Iranians build advance their nuclear power plant! They might acquire 1 nuclear weapon some day!!!

That's what I was thinking.

They don't have the right to tell anyone else they can't have any.

It's amazing that everyone, including my tobacco chewing next door neighbor, with 3 coon dogs that sleep under his porch, knows how many nukes our country has. Heck, it's even more amazing that I know how many nukes we have!

If that isn't considered classified information, what is? Is it only a matter of time before we publish the locations of our arsenal?

How did I get to Bizarro world?



Edited to add: I believe we actually have a lot more than the 5,113 mentioned in the original post.


[edit on 5/4/2010 by Sparky63]

Originally posted by Skid Mark
Should we trust those numbers? I don't think they'd let the enemy know how many they really have.

Active warheads are those ready to be used within a short period of time, while inactive warheads are maintained but have key parts removed from them, the official said.

Not really, if they wanted to they can re purpose thousands more in in probably very little time for each one - it's still a massive number 5K+... It's hard to see why they need more than a few hundred really.

Also what do they do with all that weapons grade material? Not to mention the viable warheads that have been lost...

I'd say reduce the numbers by a factor of 3 of what the US is claiming there stockpiling.
Warheads are notoriously difficult to produce on a industrial scale, its not something you can make at a simple toy-factory on a saturday afternoon.
Mere propoganda to "scare" potential enemies away, the US knows its some 1700 warheads are depleting, along with the rest of its military force. Much of the projects now are focused on Laser/EMP technology than on Nuclear. Nukes are old technology, theres far worse to worry about.

Please use the existing thread to continue discussion.

U.S. reveals it has 5,113 nuclear warheads (Different thread, same title)

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