For the first time in decades, the world’s two largest nuclear superpowers are no longer bound by any treaty limiting their arsenals.
The last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia, known as New START, expired Thursday.
The lapse removed limits on how many nuclear weapons Washington and Moscow could deploy on missiles, bombers and submarines, and ended the requirement that both sides notify one another whenever nuclear weapons were moved.
The scale of what’s now unconstrained is vast.
Globally, there are more than 12,200 nuclear weapons spread across nine nuclear-armed nations, according to a recent analysis. The United States and Russia alone account for roughly 10,636 of those weapons.
While the exact size of each country’s arsenal is closely guarded, below is a breakdown of estimated nuclear stockpiles, based on data from the Federation of American Scientists.
Ahead of the New START agreement’s expiration, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, ‘Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (a badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future.’
He has previously argued that China should be included in any new agreement with Russia, pointing to Beijing’s growing nuclear arsenal, the world’s third largest after the U.S. and Russia.