United States and weapons of mass destruction information
United States of America
Nuclear program start date
21 October 1939
First nuclear weapon test
16 July 1945
First thermonuclear weapon test
1 November 1952
Last nuclear test
23 September 1992
Largest yield test
15 Mt (1 March 1954)
Total tests
1,054 detonations
Peak stockpile
32,040 warheads (1967)
Current stockpile
5,044 total[1] (2024)
Current strategic arsenal
1,670[2] (2023)
Cumulative strategic arsenal in megatonnage
≈820[3] (2021)
Maximum missile range
13,000 km (8,078 mi) (land) 12,000 km (7,456 mi) (sub)
NPT party
Yes (1968, one of five recognized powers)
Weapons of mass destruction
By type
Biological
Chemical
Nuclear
Radiological
By country
Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
China
Egypt
France
Germany
India
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Italy
Japan
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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The United States is known to have possessed three types of weapons of mass destruction: nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. The U.S. is the only country to have used nuclear weapons on another country, when it detonated two atomic bombs over two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. It had secretly developed the earliest form of the atomic weapon during the 1940s under the title "Manhattan Project".[4] The United States pioneered the development of both the nuclear fission and hydrogen bombs (the latter involving nuclear fusion). It was the world's first and only nuclear power for four years, from 1945 until 1949, when the Soviet Union produced its own nuclear weapon. The United States has the second-largest number of nuclear weapons in the world, after the Russian Federation.[5][6]
Nuclear weapons
Background
Nuclear explosion
History
Warfare
Design
Testing
Delivery
Yield
Effects
Winter
Workers
Ethics
Arsenals
Arms race
Espionage
Proliferation
Disarmament
Terrorism
Opposition
Nuclear-armed states
NPT recognized United States
Russia
United Kingdom
France
China
Others India
Israel (undeclared)
Pakistan
North Korea
Former South Africa
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Ukraine
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^"Status of World Nuclear Forces – Federation Of American Scientists". Fas.org.
^"Status of World Nuclear Forces – Federation Of American Scientists". Fas.org.
^M. Kristensen, Hans (2021). "United States nuclear weapons, 2021". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 77 (1). Taylor & Francis (T&F): 43–63. Bibcode:2021BuAtS..77a..43K. doi:10.1080/00963402.2020.1859865. S2CID 231722905.
the new weaponsofmassdestruction? At the time, nuclear weapons had not been developed. Japan conducted research on biological weapons , and chemical...
actively researched and later employed weaponsofmassdestruction (WMD) from 1962 to 1991, when it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and halted its biological...
three types ofweaponsofmassdestruction: nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and chemical weapons. It is one of the five nuclear-weaponstates recognized...
equipment and programs that could lead to internationally proscribed weapons. This included weaponsofmassdestruction (nuclear, chemical and biological...
stockpile ofweaponsofmassdestruction. This stockpile of chemical weapons included 16,678 kilograms (36,769 lb) of mustard gas, lewisite, adamsite, and phenacyl...
Israel has weaponsofmassdestruction, and to be one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized as a Nuclear Weapons State by the Non-Proliferation...
nuclear weapon by 2015. On 25 October 2007, the UnitedStates declared the Revolutionary Guards a "proliferator ofweaponsofmassdestruction", and the Quds...
does not have weaponsofmassdestruction made by itself, the country participates in NATO's nuclear weapons sharing arrangements and trains for delivering...
variety of treaties and agreements have been enacted to regulate the use, development and possession of various types ofweaponsofmassdestruction (WMD)...
possesses nuclear weaponsand previously developed chemical weapons. Although India has not released any official statements about the size of its nuclear arsenal...
into weaponsofmassdestruction, including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons under the apartheid government. South Africa’s nuclear weapons doctrine...
and its weapons system. In 1994, Ukraine agreed to transfer these weapons to Russia and became a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear...
or believed to possess weaponsofmassdestruction. During the Cold War, Soviet nuclear warheads were stockpiled in Poland and designated to deploy within...
has developed weaponsofmassdestruction, most notably chemical weapons. Chemical weapons production was concentrated in Smyadovo. As of 2016, Bulgaria...
French, French Wikipedia) List ofstates with nuclear weapons Moruroa Nuclear-free zone - New Zealand Weaponsofmassdestruction UK parliamentary question...
technical capability to produce weaponsofmassdestruction (WMD), since World War II it has refrained from producing those weapons. However, Germany participates...
Praises Mexico's Efforts to Prevent the Spread of Nuclear Weaponsand Technology". Embassy of the UnitedStates in Mexico website. June 25, 2012. Archived...
officially maintained and possessed weaponsofmassdestruction since 1984 and, as of 1998, has signed treaties repudiating possession of them. Canada ratified...
history with the development ofweaponsofmassdestruction. Under the military dictatorship, Argentina began a nuclear weapons program in the early 1980s...
to acquire and develop weaponsofmassdestruction. The 1943 Battle of Changde saw Japanese use of both bioweapons and chemical weapons, and the Japanese...
possess weaponsofmassdestruction. Article II Section 8 of the Philippine Constitution explicitly forbids the presence of nuclear weapons in the Philippines...
Republic of China has developed and possesses weaponsofmassdestruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons. The first of China's nuclear weapons tests...
Treaty in January 1995, and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention In August 2001, Algeria acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention. Algeria signed...
Pakistan is one of nine states that possess nuclear weapons. Pakistan began developing nuclear weapons in January 1972 under Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali...
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Switzerland never possessed biological weapons, but did have a program of the Swiss Army high command to develop and test chemical...
Egypt had a history ofweaponsofmassdestructionand used chemical weapons during the North Yemen Civil War. Although it has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation...