Russian President Vladimir Putin raised eyebrows — and possibly the stakes of his war in Ukraine — on Sunday, when he ordered his nuclear weapons to be on heightened alert.
The White House projected confidence on Monday, with President Joe Biden telling American’s not to worry that the order would raise the specter of nuclear war.
Whether Putin is posturing or not, the former Cold War-era KGB agent currently commands the world’s largest compliment of nuclear warheads.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think-tank that tracks the global nuclear arsenal, Russia possessed 6,255 nuclear warheads as of January 2021, their most recent available data.
That eclipses the U.S. nuclear quiver, which has 5,550.
America has more nukes ready to go at the push of a button, however, with 1,800 of those warheads mounted atop a missile or within ready access of a nuclear-capable bomber crew.
Russia only has 1,625 nuclear weapons in so-called “deployed” status.
Of course, It’s unlikely there’d be time — or need and ability — to reload after the first salvo of a global thermonuclear war.
The U.S. and Russia are the only nations with four-figure nuclear arsenals:
- China: 350 warheads, all held in reserve.
- France: 280 deployed warheads, 10 more in reserve.
- United Kingdom: 225, but expected to grow after raising it’s self-imposed limit to 260 warheads.
- Pakistan: 165 warheads
- India: 156 warheads
- Israel: Believed by most to have 90 nuclear warheads, but Israel has long been coy about even the existence of its nuclear program
- North Korea: The dictatorship’s renegade nuclear program is also shrouded in mystery — estimates range from 20-50 functioning nukes
The size and destructive capabilities of nuclear warheads vary based on their construction and design. By current standards, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the close of World War II — the only nuclear weapons to date to be fired in war — are considered “low-yield.”
The bomb dropped on Hiroshima is estimated to have killed 140,000 people, while the Nagasaki bombing killed some 74,000.
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The average modern thermonuclear warhead in the Russian or American arsenal can be hundreds of times more destructive.