The latest assessment from the defense department said China had increased its arsenal of operational nuclear warheads from the estimated 400 in 2021 to more than 500 as of May this year.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That seems kind of low, or is it just me?

    Quick google search says Russia is around 5,977 nukes and the US has 5,428.

    • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      China has always kept their nuclear force rather limited in number. Only recently have they started expanding their stockpile.

    • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t believe this is classified but the United States keeps about 1700 nuclear weapons active located in ground and submarine ICBM’s or in cruise missiles at bomber bases. The rest are in storage. The United States regularly tests the delivery systems as does China. Russia hasn’t had a successful launch in several years.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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      1 year ago

      It still enough to cause a nuclear fallout if both side launch at each other, and they’re targeting 1.5k, the same amount that US has which is ready to deploy.

      I thought we’re cutting down on nuclear weapon but ehh, this global warming could makes one wish for a nuclear winter.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh, definitely, I was just surprised because I figured China would be closer to both Russia and the US.

    • DonnieDarkmode@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I believe those are total numbers, so that includes both operational warheads (ready to launch) and stored warheads. The article here is specifically referring to the number of operational warheads China has, which is still much lower than that of Russia and the US, but the gap isn’t quite as wide as 500-6,000