The National Nuclear Security Administration released a report last week that said the U.S. nuclear stockpile had 3,748 warheads as of September 2023.
Information on the nuclear weapons stockpile was last released and updated in October 2021, when the stockpile had 3,713 warheads.
The number of nuclear warheads is down 88% from its peak in 1967 of 31,255 warheads, a maximum reached during the Cold War. According to the report, the number of U.S. non-strategic nuclear weapons declined more than 90% since 1991.
“Increasing the transparency of states’ nuclear stockpiles is important to nonproliferation and disarmament efforts, including commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) factsheet said. “[E]fforts to address all types of nuclear weapons, including deployed and non-deployed, and strategic and non-strategic.”
The report also said that from 1994 to 2023, the U.S. dismantled 12,088 nuclear warheads, and 405 nuclear warheads since September 2020. Currently, 2,000 additional warheads are retired and ready for dismantlement.
