Despite President Barack Obama’s efforts to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. security policy, the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile reductions and warhead dismantlements have slowed under the Obama administration, according to updated stockpile numbers declassified last week by the Department of Defense.
The U.S. stockpile consisted of 4,571 nuclear weapons by the end of fiscal 2015, down from 4,717 in fiscal 2014 and 25,540 in 1962. Meanwhile, the Obama administration dismantled last year the lowest number of nuclear warheads during the president’s term: 109 weapons in fiscal 2015, down from 299 dismantlements in 2014 and 356 in 2009.
The 2015 figure brings the total number of weapons dismantled to 10,360.
An analysis by Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, found that “the Obama administration has reduced the U.S. stockpile less than any other post-Cold War administration” and that dismantlement numbers have shown a general downward trend during his presidency. He also noted the latest dismantlement numbers are the lowest in one year “since at least 1970.”
Secretary of State John Kerry announced last April that the U.S. would dismantle warheads retired by fiscal 2009 at a 20 percent accelerate rate. The National Nuclear Security Administration then requested in its fiscal 2017 budget proposal $69 million to meet this commitment and complete dismantlement work one year earlier than originally planned, by fiscal 2021.
However, Kristensen noted in his analysis that the Obama administration’s average of around 280 dismantlements per year indicates “it will take at least until 2024 before the total current backlog is dismantled.”
These numbers cast a shadow on the nonproliferation and disarmament objectives the president intended to be part of his legacy, outlined in an April 2009 speech in Prague, where he spoke of the need to enhance the security of fissile material worldwide while working toward a nuclear-weapons-free world.
The Defense Department’s 2010 Nuclear Posture Review also highlighted reductions in the role and quantity of nuclear weapons as key factors in eventually achieving a nuclear-free world.
Under the Obama administration, the U.S. finalized a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, helped negotiate an agreement to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, and organized four high-level nuclear security summits. However, critics and anti-nuclear activists continue to point to the ongoing U.S. nuclear modernization program, expected to cost around $1 trillion over 30 years, as an initiative incompatible with the president’s stated intentions.