Originally published on the CGS blog on December 19, 2007.
Yesterday, President Bush ordered a reduction of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, which would shrink to under 1/4th of its size at the end of the Cold War. This announcement supports a previous decision in 2004, which aimed to cut the stockpile by 50% of the 2001 level by 2012. Yesterday’s order will speed up the process; reductions are scheduled to take place by the end of this year. In addition, President Bush wants to cut the remaining stockpile by another 15% by 2012.
How deep do these cuts run? The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) estimates that in 2001, the U.S. had approximately 10,500 warheads, thus the cut by the end of the year would reduce the stockpile to about 5,400. The remaining cut of 15% would leave the nuclear stockpile at 4,600 warheads.
This is an important development, as it shows that the U.S. is willing to lead by example and cut its nuclear stockpile as well as abide by arms control treaties. This administration, however, has sent mixed messages to the world; it asked for $88 million in funding for a new breed of nuclear weapons, the Reliable Replacement Warhead program (RRW). These plans were hampered, as funding for this program was cut by Congress for the current fiscal year.
