Eighty years after the first and only use of nuclear weapons during the Second World War, the proliferation of the world’s most powerful explosives has continued to provide a growing number of countries with increasingly diverse means of launching nuclear attacks.
Although the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has restricted just five counties to owning nuclear weapons, namely the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom, a total of fifteen countries today retain at least a limited known capability to launch nuclear attacks.
These include both four non-signatories of the treaty, and six countries that are part of nuclear sharing agreements, meaning they train to use either American or Russian nuclear weapons stored on their territory in the expectation that they will be provided access to these in the event that a high intensity conflict breaks out.
Countries with nuclear weapons can broadly be divided into four categories depending on the sizes, capabilities and diversity of their arsenals and means of delivery. An overview of the capabilities of the world’s nuclear arsenals is provided below.
Level One: United States, Russia and China
The United States, Russia and China are currently the only nuclear weapons states with both robust nuclear triads and intercontinental range strike capabilities, meaning they deploy nuclear weapons on ground launched missile systems, from strategic bombers, and from submarines all of which can engage targets 5,600 km away.
All three deploy both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons, although China’s arsenal is under a fifth the size of the other two nuclear superpowers, while its doctrine for nuclear weapons use is among the most conservative and defensive in the world.
The three countries each have various strengths and shortcomings in their arsenals, with Russia deploying more warheads, a large arsenal of nuclear armed tactical ballistic missiles, and intercontinental range hypersonic glide vehicles, while the United States is the only country to deploy tactical nuclear weapons using radar evading stealth fighters and bombers.
The United States suffers from growing obsolescence of arsenal of nuclear armed intercontinental range ballistic missiles, which dates back to the 1970s, while Russia has sought to counter the threat from American bombers by arming its interceptors with the world’s only known nuclear-armed air-to-air missiles.
US Army Places US Typhon Missiles In Japan For First Time, Enraging China
The United States continues using regional Asian allies to counter-signal China and flex its military might, following President Xi Jinping’s massive military parade marking the 80th anniversary of World War II, which gripped the world’s attention two weeks ago.
This week the US Army has unveiled a midrange Typhon missile system on a Japanese base for the first time. The deployment comes in the context of the annual bilateral exercise Resolute Dragon; however, US officials have made clear the Typhon won’t be fired, but is only there for training purposes.
Typhon missile
We previewed earlier that the Typhon, also dubbed ‘Mid-Range Capability’, is a land-based missile launcher that can fire nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range exceeding 1,000 miles, and SM-6 missiles, which can hit targets up to 290 miles away.
The missile system would have been banned under the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a treaty with Russia that the US withdrew from in 2019. This has naturally caused immense alarm in Beijing, as has Washington’s deepening military relationship with Japan.
American Buddhist Net 