Defense Primer: Strategic Nuclear Forces (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Nov. 18, 2024 |
| Report Number |
IF10519 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Amy F. Woolf |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
The United States is in the process of modernizing its
strategic nuclear forces. This modernization effort includes
numerous Department of Defense (DOD) major defense
acquisition programs, some of which are annually assessed
by the Government Accountability Office, and warhead
modernization programs implemented by the National
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semiautonomous agency in the Department of Energy. In 2023,
the Congressional Budget Office estimated that U.S.
programs to operate and modernize nuclear forces would
cost $756 billion over the next 10 years. The FY2025 DOD
budget requests “$49.2 billion for the modernization,
sustainment, and operations of all three legs of the nuclear
triad.” Members of Congress have shown strong interest in
conducting oversight of U.S. nuclear modernization efforts.
Since the early 1960s, the United States has maintained a
“triad” of strategic nuclear delivery vehicles. These include
long-range land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles
(ICBMs), long-range submarine-launched ballistic missiles
(SLBMs) on strategic nuclear submarines (SSBNs), and
long-range heavy bombers. The U.S. nuclear warhead
stockpile has decreased in number as the United States
changed nuclear planning requirements after the Cold War
and complied with arms control agreements.
U.S. strategic forces are currently limited by the 2011 U.S.-
Russian New START treaty. Table 1 displays U.S. nuclear
forces, as of September 1, 2022, accountable under that
treaty. The United States had 1,419 warheads deployed on
662 missiles and bombers as of March 1, 2023, according to
a more recent State Department fact sheet. The State
Department has stated that the United States “is prepared to
adhere” to the treaty’s central limits (1,550 deployed
warheads on 700 deployed strategic launchers; 800 total
strategic launchers) “as long as it assesses the Russian
Federation is doing so.”
