Nuclear Reset - Program on Strategic Stability Evaluation (POSSE)

210<strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Reset</strong>: Arms Reduction and Nonproliferationthe number remains secret, foreign experts appear to agree on a totalof about 8,000. 14 However, the methodology used by the independentexperts is also questionable, in particular their inclusion of the 630warheads of the AAW missiles, which, according to Moscow’s officialstatements, have all been moved to centralized storage facilities.The operational tactical systems are being modernized with the newIskander tactical missile, which can presumably be fitted with eithernuclear or conventional warheads. It is possible that the new Su-34front-line bombers may also have dual-use application.Other nuclear powers keep information on their non-strategicnuclear forces completely secret. Experts estimate that China hasabout 100 to 200 such weapons, India has 50, Israel has between60 and 200, Pakistan has 60, and North Korea has between six andten, 15 which would include intermediate- and short-range ballisticand cruise missiles and aviation bombs on attack aircraft. For someof these countries, such weapons represent all or the bulk of theirentire nuclear capacity and are regarded by them as a strategic nucleardeterrent.Strategic Priorities of the SidesFollowing the end of the Cold War, the reunification of Germany,the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the disintegration of the SovietUnion, and the withdrawal of Soviet combat troops from Central andEastern Europe, the threat of a general forces attack on the NATOcountries vanished. For the entire forty years following 1945, this hadbeen seen as the primary security threat for NATO, against whichthe nuclear deterrence and nuclear guarantees of the United Stateswere targeted, including through deployment of TNWs in Europeand conceptual planning of their first use in case of an attack by conventionalforces using conventional weapons.Nevertheless, the nuclear weapons that the United States alonecurrently has abroad consist of 200 tactical aviation bombs in fiveNATO nations (Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy,the Netherlands, and Turkey). Over recent years, the United Stateshas withdrawn its TNWs from Great Britain and Greece. Once tacticalnuclear weapons had been removed from U.S. surface ships andsubmarines, Japan (where the 7 th Fleet was based) was also removedfrom the list. In the remaining NATO states and between the Allied