The US Department of State has disclosed that it currently has 1,419 nuclear warheads deployed in its arsenal and is urging Russia to do the same.

The announcement was made in line with the New START Treaty, which requires transparency and a shared commitment to arms reduction. The US decision to release the information publicly appears to be a reversal of an earlier decision not to share the data.

“The United States continues to view transparency among nuclear weapon states as extremely valuable for reducing the likelihood of misperception, miscalculation, and costly arms competitions,” a spokesperson remarked in a statement.

The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty came into force in 2011 and was extended for a further five years in 2021. It caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy, as well as the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and the bombers to deliver them.

But in February 2023, amid a sharp deterioration in relations since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that he was suspending Russia’s participation in the agreement. The US said that Moscow had not made any disclosures in March and was “not implementing other key provisions of the treaty,” but did not elaborate.

“The United States calls on the Russian Federation to comply with its legally binding obligations by returning to full implementation of the New START Treaty and all the stabilising transparency and verification measures contained within it,” the State Department spokesperson added.

The latest figures show that as well as the nuclear warheads deployed, the US had 662 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers. In total, as of March 1, it had 800 delivery systems, both deployed and non-deployed, the maximum allowed.

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