How Many Nuclear Weapons Does the US Have?

Warhead count

FAS and SIPRI are compiled by the same analysts and agree on the totals; they split the categories slightly differently. Retired warheads are awaiting dismantlement and are not part of the reserve.

Terms: deployed = on missiles or at bomber bases; reserve / stored = non-deployed but in the stockpile; military stockpile = deployed + reserve; retired = withdrawn, awaiting dismantlement; total inventory = stockpile + retired.^{[1, 2]}

How the United States delivers them

Delivery systems from the latest Nuclear Notebook / SIPRI table (2026 (Table 1, Nuclear Notebook published 2026-03-12)). A “?” or a dash is the source’s own mark of an uncertain or unstated figure.^[3]

• 400 deployed Minuteman III, one warhead each^[14]
• approximately 970 SLBM warheads deployed^[3]
• 14 Ohio-class SSBNs^[14]
• approximately 60 bombers (18 B-2A, 42 B-52H) assigned nuclear missions^[14]
• about 100 B61 bombs at six bases in five European countries^[14]
• 1,770 deployed (Table 1)^[3]

Blast radius of the United States’s warheads

For each distinct warhead yield in the United States’s arsenal, the air-burst 5 psi (most homes destroyed) and 3rd-degree-burn radii, calculated by the same engine as the blast radius calculator.^{[4, 5]}

The United States’s nuclear tests

First name

Trinity^[6]

First date

1945-07-16^[6]

First site

Alamogordo Bombing Range, south-central New Mexico (100-foot tower)^[6]

First yield

21^[6]

First yield reassessed 2021

24.8 ±2^[7]

Last

Divider, 1992-09-23, below the Nevada Test Site^[8]

Total

1,054^[8]

Total doe

1,054^[9]

Total excludes combat use

two combat uses are not counted as tests^[9]

Treaty status

NPT

party; signed 1968-07-01; ratified 1970-03-05; in force 1970-03-05^[10]

NPT nuclear weapon state

one of the five NPT nuclear-weapon states^[11]

CTBT

signed 1996-09-24; not ratified^[12]

CTBT signature

signed 1996-09-24; Senate did not consent; not ratified^[13]

Frequently asked questions