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Russia has already cut its nuclear arsenal to below the level set in an arms control treaty signed with the United States last year, according to figures released by the US State Department on Wednesday. Russia now has 1,537 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, just under the 1,550 ceiling it was obliged to reach by 2018 under the New START nuclear arms reduction pact, according to a State Department fact-sheet. The US has 1,800. The figures are accurate as of February 5 and came from an exchange of data required under the treaty, which came into force March 22. Under the treaty, each side vows to stock no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads. Each also agreed to limit its intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, submarine ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers to no more than 800, whether deployed or not. The US has 1,124 of these and Russia 865, according to the figures. Finally, each committed to deploy no more than 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine ballistic missiles or heavy bombers in deployment. As of February 5, the US had 882 of these and Russia 521. Tom Collina, research director of the nonpartisan Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan Washington-based group that seeks to promote arms control, welcomed the speed of Russia's cuts and urged the US to match them. "New Start is working," he wrote, saying Russia was previously estimated to have 2,000 deployed warheads. "Russia has already deactivated hundreds of nuclear weapons that otherwise could have been aimed at the United States, and the US is using on-site inspections to verify these reductions," Collina said. "This is good news for US security." "If Russia can accelerate its reductions, so can the US," he added. "There is no need for the Pentagon to wait until 2018 to get to New START levels. As a confidence-building measure, the US should speed up its reductions." Reuters |
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