South Africa and weapons of mass destruction information
South Africa
Nuclear program start date
1967[1]
First nuclear weapon test
Possible, 22 September 1979 (See Vela incident)
First fusion weapon test
Unknown
Last nuclear test
Unknown
Largest yield test
Unknown
Total tests
Unknown
Peak stockpile
6
Current stockpile
None; the programme was voluntarily dismantled in 1989.
Maximum range
1,300 kilometres (810 mi) (English Electric Canberra)
NPT signatory
Yes
Weapons of mass destruction
By type
Biological
Chemical
Nuclear
Radiological
By country
Albania
Algeria
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Libya
Mexico
Myanmar
Netherlands
North Korea
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Rhodesia
Romania
Russia (Soviet Union)
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Proliferation
Chemical
Nuclear
Missiles
Treaties
List of treaties (treaty parties)
Category
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From the 1960s to the 1990s, South Africa pursued research into weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear,[2] biological, and chemical weapons under the apartheid government. South Africa’s nuclear weapons doctrine was designed for political leverage rather than actual battlefield use, specifically to induce the United States of America to intervene in any regional conflicts between South Africa and the Soviet Union or its proxies.[3][4] To achieve a minimum credible deterrence, a total of six nuclear weapons were covertly assembled by the late 1980s.[5]
Before the anticipated changeover to a majority-elected African National Congress–led government in the 1990s, the South African government dismantled all of its nuclear weapons, the first state in the world which voluntarily gave up all nuclear arms it had developed itself. The country has been a signatory of the Biological Weapons Convention since 1975, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since 1991, and the Chemical Weapons Convention since 1995. In February 2019, South Africa ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, becoming the first country to have had nuclear weapons, disarmed them and gone on to sign the treaty.[citation needed]
^Cite error: The named reference Nuclear Threat Initiatives, South Africa (NTI South Africa) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Von Wielligh, N. & von Wielligh-Steyn, L. (2015). The Bomb: South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme. Pretoria: Litera.
^Albright, David; Stricker, Andrea (2016). Revisiting South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program(PDF). Washington, D.C.: Institute for Science and International Security. ISBN 978-1536845655. LCCN 2018910946.
^Keller, Bill (25 March 1993). "South Africa Says It Built 6 Atom Bombs". The New York Times. p. A1. Archived from the original on 29 October 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
^John Pike. "Nuclear Weapons Program – South Africa". Globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
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