Russia's extensive nuclear weapons drills, and its choice to deploy systems in Belarus, have dragged Moscow's tactical nuclear stockpile back into the spotlight.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the British military, said earlier this month that "from Russia, we have seen wild threats of tactical nuclear use, large scale nuclear exercises and simulated attacks against NATO countries."
This is "all designed to coerce us from taking the action required to maintain stability," Radakin said during an address in London.
NATO countries are staring down the "dawn of a third nuclear age," Radakin added, coming out of the previous era of disarmament pushes and counter-proliferation, which followed the initial burst of nuclear arms races in the depths of the Cold War.
Combined, Russia and the U.S. have control over roughly 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. This includes strategic and non-strategic, or tactical, nuclear weapons.
Unlike strategic weapons, tactical nuclear weapons are designed for use on the battlefield or in what is known as a specific theater. They have a smaller yield, and are designed to be used against different targets than strategic nuclear weapons, which are limited under the New START Treaty that is due to expire in 2026.
Strategic nuclear weapons are deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and those fired from bomber aircraft. They are thought of as the missiles which could level entire cities and threaten major global superpowers.
"It's implied that they would cause less damage," the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has previously said. But "these warheads can have explosive yields up to 300 kilotons, or 20 times that of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima," the organization added.
While strategic nuclear weapons are capped by the New START Treaty, tactical nuclear warheads are not limited under any international agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia has transferred nuclear-capable Iskander-M tactical missile systems to its key ally, Belarus.
The country's strongman leader, Alexander Lukashenko, said in mid-2023 that these tactical nuclear weapons included bombs three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the U.S. used against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Putin said Russia retained control over these weapons.
Russian officials have also overtly warned of the possibility of a nuclear conflict over the war in Ukraine, now not far off the three-year mark. Moscow has held several rounds of tactical nuclear weapons drills this year, including in May, in response to what the Kremlin called "provocative statements and threats" from Western officials. It has also regularly held strategic nuclear weapons drills.
The U.S. has said that "deterring Russian limited nuclear use in a regional conflict is a high U.S. and NATO priority."
How Many Tactical Nuclear Weapons Does Russia Have?
Washington reiterated earlier this year previous estimates of Russia's non-strategic nuclear weapons stockpile, placing the number somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 warheads. "Russia has an active stockpile of up to 2,000 non-strategic nuclear warheads," the U.S. assessed in 2022.
Russia is not required to disclose its tactical nuclear weapons stockpile, unlike its strategic nuclear weapons count.
Estimates from experts in 2022 suggested Russia had "approximately 1,912 nonstrategic nuclear warheads, potentially fewer, assigned for delivery by air, naval, ground, and various defensive forces." This number could include weapons in the process of being dismantled or retired.
The Federation of American Scientists put Russia's number of non-strategic nuclear warheads at an estimated 1,558 earlier this year.
Among the tactical nuclear weapons stockpile are gravity bombs, anti-aircraft missiles, anti-ballistic missile systems, torpedoes, and nuclear mines, as well as nuclear warheads that can be fired by Russian systems equipped for conventional and nuclear payloads.
Many of the weapons systems used to launch tactical nuclear weapons can also be used for conventional operations, or missions that don't involve nuclear weapons.
"While Russia initially followed America's lead and made similarly sharp reductions in its strategic nuclear forces, it retained large numbers of non-strategic nuclear weapons," evaluated the U.S.'s Nuclear Posture Review 2018, penned under the first Trump administration. "Today, Russia is modernizing these weapons as well as its other strategic systems."
Even more troubling has been Russia's adoption of military strategies and
capabilities that rely on nuclear escalation for their success
What Does the US's Tactical Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Look Like?
The State Department said in April that the Biden administration, like the administrations before it, assessed that the U.S. did not need to "match nor mimic" Russia's tactical weapons stockpile.
The U.S. has an estimated 200 tactical nuclear weapons, with roughly half deployed at European bases. The U.S. is believed to have around 100 tactical bombs deployed in five NATO countries on the continent, including in Turkey, Germany and Belgium.
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