Russia Claims To Have A 'Nuclear Surprise' For NATO

The RT-2PM Topol ballistic missile (RIA Novosti/Alexandr Kryazhev)

Russia Prepares Nuclear Surprise For NATO -- Pravda

On September 1, 2014 the US State Department published a report, in which it was stated that for first time since the collapse of the USSR, Russia reached parity with the US in the field of strategic nuclear weapons. Thus, Washington admitted that Moscow regained the status that the Soviet Union had obtained by mid-70's of the XX century and then lost.

According to the report from the State Department, Russia has 528 carriers of strategic nuclear weapons that carry 1,643 warheads. The United States has 794 vehicles and 1,652 nuclear warheads.

It just so happens that today, Russia's strategic nuclear forces (SNF) are even more advanced in comparison with those of the US, as they ensure parity on warheads with a significantly smaller number of carriers of strategic nuclear weapons. This gap between Russia and the United States may only grow in the future, given the fact that Russian defense officials promised to rearm Russia's SNF with new generation missiles.

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Update: Pro-Kremlin Russian Media Says Moscow Has A 'Nuclear Surprise' For NATO -- Business Insider

My Comment: The debate on who has more nuclear weapons has been ongoing for as long as I can remember. Bottom line .... if even one tactical nuclear warhead is used, it will probably result in all nuclear weapons being used .... a path that I sincerely hope will never happen.

Here's Where We Think The World's Nukes Are Stored

An image from the U.S.'s May, 1953 "Grable" test of a 280-mm nuclear cannon. U.S. Department of Energy

Here's Where We Think The World's Nukes Are Stored — And What It Says About Global Security -- Armin Rosen, Business Insider

Nuclear security scholars Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris published a study of the worldwide deployment of nuclear weapons on August 27th in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, their first such survey since 2009.

As they stress throughout their paper, tracking the number and location of the world's nuclear warheads is an inherently uncertain endeavor. Nuclear-armed powers don't tend to reveal information about other countries' programs, and some governments, like Israel, maintain a strictly-enforced code of opacity regarding anything nuke-related. Little is really known about North Korea's program, and command and control over the nuclear stock in Pakistan is still a matter of anxious speculation.

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My Comment: All that I cans say is that it is amazing that we have not blown ourselves up since the dawn of the atomic age. The entire report on the worldwide deployments of nuclear weapons for 2014 is here.

Update: This is interesting .... MAP: All 17,000 Of The World's Nukes (Business Insider)