THE TELEGRAPH: The United States has become the first country to disclose an up-to-date figure for the number of weapons in its nuclear arsenal.
It has done so to encourage more openness from other nuclear states and to further President Barack Obama's goal of global disarmament.
The Pentagon said 5,113 warheads were either operationally deployed, kept in active reserve or held in inactive storage. On a fact sheet detailing numbers that had been classified for decades, it said that the arsenal has been reduced by 84 per cent from its maximum level of 31,225 warheads at the end of 1967.
The total disclosed by the Pentagon did not include the number of warheads that have been retired and scheduled for complete dismantlement, an estimated 4,600 according to the Federation of American Scientists.
The Pentagon did not detail the size of the remaining warheads. But according to previous analysis many weapons in the arsenal are far more powerful than the 15 kilotons of TNT used at Hiroshima and the 22 kiloton bomb dropped on Nagasaki. US has more than 5,000 nuclear warheads >>> Alex Spillius in New York | Tuesday, May 04, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: The US revealed the size of its nuclear arsenal last night in an unprecedented attempt to galvanise efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, announced the declassification of one of the Pentagon’s most closely guarded secrets at the opening day of a critical international meeting on global disarmament.
The Pentagon’s figures show that the US stockpile consists of 5,113 nuclear warheads and “several thousand” more retired warheads that await dismantling. The figures reveal an 84 per cent reduction from the historic peak of 31,225 warheads in 1967 at the height of the Cold War.
“Beginning today, the United States will make public the number of nuclear weapons in our stockpile and the number of weapons we have dismantled since 1991,” Mrs Clinton told the UN review conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty. “So for those who doubt that the United States will do its part on disarmament, this is our record, these are our commitments and they send a clear, unmistakable signal.” >>> Catherine Philp in New York | Tuesday, May 04, 2010
THE GUARDIAN: US shows its nuclear hand in bid to show sincerity on arms: Exact number of US warheads revealed for first time as Iran's leader hits out on first day of non-proliferation talks >>> Julian Borger and Andrew Clark in New York | Tuesday, May 04, 2010
