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November/December 2006 Bulletin of the Atomic ScientiStS 57

ACM: advanced cruise missile; AFB: air force base; ALCM: air-launched cruise missile; ICBM: intercontinental ballistic missile;

GLCM: ground-launched cruise missile; SLBM: submarine-launched ballistic missile; SLCM: submarine-launched cruise missile

* All B61-10 and 83-0 bombs are inactive. ** Presidential Decision Directive 74 of November 29, 2000, authorizeddeployment of 480 (+/-10 percent) B61 bombs in Europe. Whether the full number was deployed is unclear. Since 2000,

the United States withdrew weapons from two former nuclear bases (Araxos in Greece and Memmingen in Germany) and

placed all B61-10s in the inactive stockpile.

Barksdale AFB, LAWEAPONS: B-52H BOmBErS

210 B61-7 bobs130 B83-1, -0 bobs*500 W80-1/ALCms100W80-1/ACms940 TOTAL

Kirtland AFB, NMIN StOrAgE

711 W80-1/ALCms250 W62s/minean III ICBms553 W87s/mX Peacekeepe ICBms400 W84/gLCms (in-esee)1,914 Total

Minot AFB, NDWEAPONS: B-52H BOmBErS,mINutEmAN III ICBmS, ACmS, ALCmS

194 B61-7 bobs130 B83-1, -0 bobs*200 W80-1/ALCms300 W80-1/ACms300 W78s (in 100 ICBm silos)100W78s (in 50 ICBm silos)30 W78s (spaes)1,254 Total

Nellis AFB, NVIN StOrAgE

306 B83-1, -0 bobs*186 B61-3 bobs

204 B61-4 bobs206 B61-10 bobs*902 Total

Whiteman AFB, MOWEAPONS: B-2 BOmBErS

35 B61-7 bobs41 B61-11 bobs60 B83-1, -0 bobs*136 Total

angor, WAAPONS: trIdENt SLBmS, SLCmS

100 W76s/tien II d5 SLBms50 W76s/tien I C4 SLBms (inacie)64 W88s/tien II d5 SLBms50W80-0s/SLCms

364 Total

Kings Bay, GAWEAPONS: trIdENt SLBmS, SLCmS

612 W76s/tien II d5468 W76s/tien I C4 (inacie)140W88s/tien II d5144W80-0s/SLCms1,364 Total

Warren AFB, COWEAPONS: mINutEmAN III ICBmS

46 W62s (in 46 ICBm silos)46 Total Warren AFB, NE

WEAPONS: mINutEmAN III ICBmS

85 W62s (in 85 ICBm silos)85 Total

Warren AFB, WYWEAPONS: mINutEmAN III ICBmS

19 W62s (in 19 ICBm silos)20 W62s (spaes)

39 Total

Malmstrom AFB, MTWEAPONS: mINutEmAN III ICBmS

150W62s (in 50 ICBm silos)10W62s (spaes)200 W78s (in 100 ICBm silos)150W78s (in 50 ICBm silos)25 W78s (spaes)535 Total

Pantex Plant, TXSEvErAL tyPES Of WArHEAdSAWAIt dISmANtLEmENt

Europe**200 B61-3 bobs200 B61-4 bobs400 Total

Locations of U.S. nuclear weapons, 2006

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58 Bulletin of the Atomic ScientiStS November/December 2006

U.S. nuclear weap-ons, and especiallythe numbers stored atspecific locations, isfraught with many un-certainties due to thehighly classified nature

of nuclear weaponsinformation. Declassi-fied documents, leaks,official statements,news reports, and con-versations with currentand former officialsprovide many clues, asdo high-resolution sat-ellite images of manyof these facilities. Suchimages are available to

anyone with a com-puter and internet ac-cess, thanks to GoogleEarth and commer-cial satellite imagingcompanies such asDigitalGlobe. Thisdevelopment intro-duces important newtools for research andadvances citizen veri-fication. The statisticscontained in this articlerepresent our best esti-mates, based on manyyears of closely follow-ing nuclear issues.

The nuclear weap-ons network shrankduring the past de-cade, with the Penta-gon removing nuclearweapons from three states (Califor-nia, Virginia, and South Dakota) andthe size of the stockpile decreasing

from about 12,500 warheads to near-ly 10,000. Consolidation slowed con-siderably compared with the periodbetween 1992 and 1997, when thePentagon withdrew nuclear weaponsfrom 10 states and several Europeanbases, and the total stockpile de-creased from 18,290 to 12,500 war-heads. (For a detailed accounting ofthe location and distribution of U.S.nuclear weapons in the 1990s, seeWhere the Bombs Are, 1992, Sep-

tember 1992 Bulletin;andWhere the BombsAre, 1997, September/October 1997 Bulletin.)

Approximately 62percent of the currentstockpile belongs to the

air force and is stored atseven bases in the Unit-ed States and eight basesin six European coun-tries; the navy stores itsweapons at two subma-rine bases, one on eachcoast. None of the otherservices possesses nucle-ar weapons.

The ballistic mis-sile submarine base at

Bangor, Washington,contains nearly 24 per-cent of the entire stock-pile, or some 2,364warheads, the largestcontingent. The Ban-gor installation is hometo a majority (nine)of the navys nuclear-powered ballistic mis-sile submarines and alarge number of surplusW76 warheads thatwill eventually be re-tired and disassembled.Its counterpart on theAtlantic coast, KingsBay Submarine Base inGeorgia, is the third-largest contingent, withsome 1,364 warheads.Each base stores ap-

proximately 150 nuclear sea-launchedcruise missiles.

Minot Air Force Base (AFB) in

North Dakota, with more than 800bombs and cruise missiles for itsB-52 bombers and more than 400warheads for its Minuteman III in-tercontinental ballistic missile wing,has the largest number of activeairforce weapons. The other B-52 wingat Barksdale AFB in Louisiana hasmore than 900 warheads, and White-man AFB in Missouri has more than130 bombsfor its B-2 bombers.

The large underground facility at

Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, NewMexico, stores more than 1,900 war-heads that are either part of the inactive/reserve stockpile or awaiting ship-ment across Interstate 40 to the Pan-tex Plant outside of Amarillo, Texas,for dismantlement. The 970-acre fa-

cility at Nellis AFB, Nevada, north-east of Las Vegas, performs a similarfunction, storing approximately 900warheads in 75 igloosone of thelargest stockpiles in the free world,according to the air force.

During the Cold War, the UnitedStates deployed a large percentage (upto one-third) of its nuclear weaponsin other countries and at sea. At itspeak arsenal size in the late 1960s, theUnited States stored weapons in 17

different countries. By the mid-1980s,there were about 14,000 weapons in26 U.S. states, 6,000 more at overseasU.S. and NATO bases, and another4,000 on ships at sea.

The United States terminatedmany nuclear missions after theend of the Cold War and retiredthe weapons. It withdrew all of itsnuclear weapons from South Koreain 1991 and thousands more fromEurope by 1993. The army and Ma-rine Corps denuclearized in the early1990s, and in 1992 the navy swiftlyoff-loaded all nuclear weapons fromaircraft carriers and other surfacevessels. By 1994, the navy had elimi-nated these ships nuclear capability,and many air force, navy, and armybases and storage depots closedoverseas as a result. Today, perhapsas many as 400 bombs remain ateight facilities in six European coun-tries, the last remnant of a bygoneera (see U.S. Nuclear Weapons in

Europe, 19542004, November/December 2004 Bulletin). n

Nuclear Notebook is prepared by Robert

S. Norris of the Natural Resources De-

fense Council (NRDC) and Hans M. Kris-

tensen of the Federation of American Sci-

entists. Data for all nuclear weapon states

is available online at www.thebulletin.org.

Inquiries should be directed to NRDC,

1200 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 400,

Washington, D.C., 20005; 202-289-6868.

Locations of U.S.nuclear weapons

overseas

blgiuGany

ItalyNthlands

Tukybitain

Where they were

Alaska*canada

chihi Jiacua

FanG

GnlandGua

Hawaii*Iw Jia

Japan (nn-nula)Jhnstn IslandKwajalin Atllmidway Islands

m

okinawaPhilippinsPut riSuth Ka

SpainTaiwan

* Deployed prior to 1959 statehood