Russia and Belarus have reached an agreement to station tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, according to President Vladimir Putin. Putin stated that the deal would not violate nonproliferation agreements. Russia currently has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, with Putin controlling approximately 5,977 as of 2022. The United States, by comparison, has 5,428 controlled by President Joe Biden. Of Russia’s warheads, an estimated 1,500 are retired, 2,889 are in reserve, and 1,588 are deployed strategic warheads. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reports that 812 are deployed on land-based ballistic missiles, 576 on submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and about 200 at heavy bomber bases.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s arsenal peaked at around 40,000 nuclear warheads, while the US peaked at around 30,000. However, the key to delivering the weapon lies in the missiles, submarines, and bombers that carry the warheads. Russia appears to have around 400 nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles that can carry up to 1,185 warheads. It operates ten nuclear-armed nuclear submarines that could carry a maximum of 800 warheads and has 60 to 70 nuclear bombers.
The US has stated in its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review that Russia and China are expanding and modernizing their nuclear forces. Washington plans to pursue an approach based on arms control to head off costly arms races. Putin has claimed that he has information that the US is developing new types of nuclear weapons. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, only a few countries have tested nuclear weapons: the US last tested in 1992, China and France last tested in 1996, India and Pakistan in 1998, and North Korea last tested in 2017. The Soviet Union last tested in 1990.
According to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, the Russian president is the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to using Russian nuclear weapons, both strategic and nonstrategic. The so-called nuclear briefcase, or “Cheget,” is with the president at all times. The Russian defense minister, currently Sergey Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, now Valery Gerasimov, are also thought to have such briefcases. Essentially, the briefcase is a communication tool that links the president with his top military brass and then to rocket forces via the highly secret “Kazbek” electronic command-and-control network. Kazbek supports another system known as “Kavkaz.”
Footage shown by Russia’s Zvezda television channel in 2019 showed what it said was one of the briefcases with an array of buttons. In a section called “command,” there are two buttons: a white “launch” button and a red “cancel” button. The briefcase is activated by a special flashcard, according to Zvezda. If Russia thought it faced a strategic nuclear attack, the president, via the briefcases, would send a direct launch order to general staff command and reserve command units, which hold the nuclear codes. Such orders cascade swiftly down different communications systems to strategic rocket force units, which then would fire at the targets.
If a nuclear attack were confirmed, Putin could activate the so-called “Dead Hand,” or “Perimetr” system of last resort. Essentially computers would decide doomsday. A control rocket would order nuclear strikes from across Russia’s vast armory.