Non Strategic Nuclear Weapons - Federation of American Scientists

Presidential Nuclear Initiatives
Today’s U.S. non-strategic nuclear posture is the result of unilateral presidential initiatives
made by four consecutive presidents. The most important is the initiative by president
George H.W. Bush on September 27, 1991, where he announced his decision to: 6
eliminate all ground-launched short-range, theater nuclear weapons;
bring home and destroy all nuclear artillery shells and short-range ballistic missile
warheads;
withdraw all tactical nuclear weapons from surface ships and attack submarines;
withdraw all nuclear weapons associated with land-based naval aircraft.
under normal circumstances, our ships will not carry tactical nuclear weapons.
many of these land and sea-based warheads will be dismantled and destroyed.
Those remaining will be secured in central areas where they would be available if
necessary in a future crisis;
preserve an effective air-delivered nuclear capability in Europe.
The withdrawal was completed in 1993 and by 1994 the number of nuclear weapons
had been reduced from 2,500 in 1991 to 480 in 1994 (all air-delivered bombs). That same
year the Clinton administration completed a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that denuclearized
the surface fleet. The NPR decided to retain the “current strength” of bombs in
Europe and retain TLAM/N for attack submarines. 7
But in 2004, the Bush administration unilaterally cut the U.S. stockpile by almost half.
The decision also led to a 50 percent reduction in the European deployment to approximately
200 weapons by 2006. This included the complete withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons
from Britain. Finally, in April 2010, the Obama administration’s NPR decided to retire
the TLAM/N.
Within the next decade, the United States will likely further unilaterally reduce its inventory
of non-strategic nuclear weapons as a program moves forward to consolidate four
existing bombs (three tactical and one strategic versions) into one.
Reduction Statements
U.S. Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons
Although the U.S. and NATO do not disclose the number of non-strategic nuclear weapons,
officials and agencies have from time to time given statements about percentage reductions.
6 President George H.W. Bush, Address to the Nation on Reducing United States and Soviet Nuclear Weapons, September 27, 1991,
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=3438&year=1991&month=9
7 The 1994 NPR failed to produce a final report but a collection of declassified documents is available here: Hans M.
Kristensen, The 1994 Nuclear Posture Review, Nuclear Brief, The Nuclear Information Project, July 8, 2005,
http://www.nukestrat.com/us/reviews/npr1994.htm
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