The United States has 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile and many thousands more that have been retired and are awaiting dismantling, according to a senior defense official.The release of the number of warheads marks only the second time in U.S. history the government has released the once top secret information.The Pentagon statistics show the nuclear stockpile was reduced by 75 percent between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and September 30, 2009, and 84 percent since its peak of more than 31,255 in 1967.The 5,113 warheads include active and inactive ones, according to the senior defense official
its not like the "bad guys" don't already know how many we have. I see this as a none issue, it has zero national security risk by releasing this info.
I think that while not the smartest thing in the world to release, there are some advantages to having that info on the table. It gives us leverage over Kim Jong Il and Imadinnerjacket. "OK you built one, deploy it and become glass." http://www.downrange.tv/forum/index.php?topic=12436.0On the other hand it IS a national security issue. Yes, an inteligent adversary can get pretty close observing the budget and the manpower changes as warheads are downgraded. Most of the "think tanks" have been within 10-20% for years. They have also only released ACTIVE warheads, not TOTAL warheads.