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Today, when more than 70 years have passed since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the scientific and industrial potential of many states allows the creation of super-powerful ammunition, any educated person should know that there are nuclear weapons. Given the secrecy of such a topic, the unwillingness of some governments and regimes to declare the real state of affairs in this area is not an easy task.
The Fab Five
The USA was the first. A country that traded with both allies and enemies, having received a net profit from the war, greater than all the gigantic losses of Nazi Germany, had the opportunity to invest huge funds in the "Manhattan Project". The birthplace of Batman, Captain America in its characteristic democratic manner, without hesitation, in 1945 the United States experienced atomic bomb on the peaceful cities of Japan. In 1952, the United States was the first to use thermonuclear weapons, many times more destructive than the first atomic weapons.
In the list titled "Which countries have nuclear weapons" the death of innocent people, radioactive ash was inscribed in the first line.
The second had to become the Soviet Union. Having a “democratic” savage brandishing an atomic club as a neighbor on the planet was simply dangerous, without having a similar weapon for protection and the possibility of retaliation. Depleted Great Patriotic War the country needed colossal efforts of scientists, intelligence officers, engineers, and workers in order to inform the Soviet people as early as 1949 that they had created an atomic bomb. In 1953, thermonuclear weapons were tested.
Fortunately, Nazi Germany was not the first to work on the creation of a military-defense complex based on a chain reaction of fission of uranium nuclei. The help of German scientists and engineers, the use of the technologies developed by them, exported by the US Army, greatly simplified the creation of a superweapon by the overseas empire of "good".
Which countries have nuclear weapons? Following the leaders of the rapidly developing race spurred on by the Cold War between the US and the USSR, England, China, and France tried to answer this question. Chronologically, it looked like this:
Explicit and covert
What countries have nuclear weapons besides the "old" nuclear powers? Those who openly announced the creation and testing of both atomic and later thermonuclear weapons were:
First of all, it is Israel. No one doubts that this country has nuclear weapons. She did not conduct his ground or underground explosions. There are only suspicions about joint tests in the South Atlantic together with South Africa, which was also considered the owner of nuclear stocks before the fall of the apartheid regime. Currently, South Africa completely denies their presence.
Long years global community and, above all, Israel was suspected of developing and creating nuclear technologies for military use by Iraq and Iran. The valiant defenders of democracy who invaded Iraq found neither nuclear weapons, nor chemical and bacteriological weapons to boot, about which they immediately bashfully kept silent. Iran, under the influence of international sanctions, recently opened all its facilities related to nuclear energy to IAEA inspectors, who confirmed the absence of developments in the creation of weapons-grade plutonium.
Now, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is suspected of secretly seeking to acquire a superweapon.
This is where the list of states of the nuclear club, consisting of explicit and secret members, ends.
Which countries have nuclear weapons, at the moment, all interested parties know quite accurately, because this is a question global security. From time to time, information appears in the media about the ongoing work in many countries from South Korea, Brazil to Saudi Arabia, which have sufficient scientific, industrial potential, to create their own nuclear weapons, but there is no official, documentary evidence of this.
Who didn't make it
Terms are a delicate thing. Under the "nuclear club" it is customary to understand only five states: the USA, Russia (as the legal successor of the USSR), Great Britain, France, and China. And that's it! Both Israel, which traditionally does not deny or confirm the presence of nuclear arsenals, and India and Pakistan, who defiantly conducted nuclear tests and officially announced the presence of nuclear charges, from the point of view of international law, cannot obtain the legal status of nuclear powers. The fact is that to join the club, you do not need the consent of its current members, but a time machine. All countries that managed to carry out nuclear tests before January 1, 1967 automatically became nuclear powers. The chronology is as follows: the Americans - in 1945, we - four years later, the British and the French - in 1952 and 1960, respectively. China jumped into the "last car" - 1964.
Let us note that such a state of affairs has always evoked and still evokes a feeling of indignation among some of the non-nuclear peoples. Nevertheless, 185 countries of the world have accepted these rules of the game and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. And this means that the door to the elite nuclear institution has closed forever.
The situation is paradoxical: any country that does not recognize the aforementioned Treaty formally has every right to create its own nuclear warhead. Yes, and the members of the Treaty are also free to withdraw from it at any time - you just need to warn the rest of this 90 days in advance.
Of course, the potential owner of the bomb will have to incur serious material costs, endure all sorts of international sanctions, and possibly even survive a military attack (at one time, an Iraqi nuclear program in literally buried Israeli F-16s, destroying an Iraqi research center).
Nevertheless, especially stubborn countries can still become the owners of the coveted bomb. Approximately 40 states of the world today, figuratively speaking, are on the threshold: that is, they have the capabilities to produce national nuclear weapons. But only four dared to cross this threshold. In addition to the aforementioned Israel, India and Pakistan, considers itself a nuclear power North Korea. True, not a single intelligence service in the world has reliable data that Pyongyang conducted at least one test of an atomic bomb. In this connection, some authoritative experts call the nuclear ambitions of the North Koreans a bluff. There are reasons for this. So, North Korea declared itself at the same time a great space power, declaring that a real satellite was launched. But in orbit, not a single tracking station recorded it. Which is rather strange, especially considering that, according to Pyongyang, their satellite from near-Earth space was broadcasting revolutionary songs with might and main.
Nuclear arsenals
There are less than 30,000 warheads in nuclear arsenals today.
If we still assume that North Korea is not bluffing, then of this amount, its hypothetical contribution is the most modest. A nuclear reactor was built 100 km north of the capital of North Korea with the help of the Chinese. It was jammed twice under pressure from the United States, but still, during its operation, it was estimated that from 9 to 24 kg of weapons-grade plutonium could be accumulated. Experts believe that the manufacture of one bomb, comparable in power to the charge that destroyed Hiroshima, requires from 1 to 3 kg of plutonium-239. Thus, the maximum that the North Korean army can have is 10 charges of relatively low power.
But if there are few bombs in the homeland of Juche, then there are more than enough of their carriers. They are even under development intercontinental missiles capable of reaching the United States.
Experts attribute to Pakistan the presence of about 50 nuclear weapons. Old scud-type ballistic missiles and more advanced ghauris can be used as carriers. In addition, Pakistani engineers independently equipped the F-16s with bomb racks for nuclear bombs.
India has about 50 to 100 nuclear bombs. A wide choice of carriers: nationally developed ballistic and cruise missiles, fighter-bombers.
Israel has a more solid arsenal: about 200 charges. It is believed that Israel has nuclear-armed F-16 and F-15 aircraft, as well as Jericho-1 and Jericho-2 missiles with a range of up to 1,800 km. In addition, this country has the most advanced air and missile defense system in the Middle East.
The UK has about 200 warheads. All of them are located on four nuclear submarines armed with Trident-II missiles. Previously, there were nuclear bombs in service with Tornado aircraft, but the British abandoned tactical nuclear weapons.
The French army and navy have 350 nuclear warheads: these are sea-based missile warheads and aerial bombs that can be delivered to the target by Mirage-2000N tactical fighter-bombers and Super Etandar carrier-based attack aircraft.
Chinese generals have at their disposal up to 300 strategic and up to 150 tactical charges.
The United States today has more than 7,000 warheads on strategic launchers: land- and sea-based ballistic missiles and bombers, and up to 4,000 tactical bombs. Total 11-12 thousand nuclear warheads.
Russia, according to Western experts, has approximately 18,000 nuclear warheads, of which 2/3 are tactical. According to data provided to RG by Viktor Mikhailov, director of the Institute for Strategic Stability, in 2000 strategic nuclear forces Russia had 5906 warheads. Another 4,000 nuclear warheads are non-strategic and are bombs tactical aviation, warheads cruise missiles and torpedoes. According to experts from one of the world's most authoritative institutions, the Swedish SIPRI, two years ago our strategic nuclear forces had 4,852 warheads, of which 2,916 were on 680 ICBMs, and 1,072 carried ballistic missiles of submarine missile carriers. Also, 864 warheads were installed on air-to-ground cruise missiles. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that there is a steady trend towards their further reduction. True, the accumulated world stocks of weapons-grade plutonium make it possible to increase arsenals to 85,000 charges within a short period of time.
In general, the total number of nuclear weapons in the world today is known only approximately. But it is known to the bomb that the arms race reached its apogee in 1986. Then there were 69,478 thousand nuclear warheads on the planet.
Alas, it must be admitted that although there are fewer bombs, their carriers have become more perfect: more reliable, more accurate and almost invulnerable.
In addition, scientists are working on a fourth-generation bomb: purely thermonuclear weapons, the fusion reaction in which must be initiated by some alternative source energy. The fact is that today's hydrogen bombs use a classic atomic explosion as a "fuse", which produces the main radioactive fallout. If the "nuclear fuse" can be replaced with something, then the generals will receive a bomb that will be as powerful as the current thermonuclear ones, but within 1-2 days after its use, the radiation on the affected area will decrease to an acceptable level. Simply put, the territory is suitable for capture and use. Imagine what a temptation it is for the attacking side...
Abandoned bombs
Statements about the need to have nuclear weapons in service are heard from time to time even in countries whose nuclear-free status seems to be unshakable. In Japan, high-ranking officials regularly speak out in favor of discussing the issue of nuclear weapons, after which they resign with a scandal. From time to time calls are revived for the creation of the first "Arab atomic bomb" in Egypt. On hearing and the scandal around secret program nuclear research and experiments in South Korea, which has always served as an example of restraint against the background of its northern neighbor.
Brazil, which we associate exclusively with Don Pedro and wild monkeys, is determined in 2010 to launch ... its own nuclear submarine. It is appropriate to recall that back in the 80s, the Brazilian military developed two designs of atomic charges with a capacity of 20 and 30 kilotons, however, the bombs were never assembled ...
However, several countries voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons.
In 1992, South Africa announced that it had 8 nuclear weapons and invited IAEA inspectors to observe their elimination.
Kazakhstan and Belarus voluntarily parted ways with WMD. After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine automatically became a powerful nuclear-missile power. The Ukrainians had at their disposal 130 SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 46 SS-24 missiles and 44 heavy strategic bombers with cruise missiles. Note that, unlike other republics in the post-Soviet space, which also had nuclear arsenals, Ukraine had the ability to build ballistic missiles (for example, all the famous SS-18 "Satan" were produced in Dnepropetrovsk) and had a uranium deposit. And theoretically she could well qualify for membership in the "nuclear club".
Nevertheless, Ukrainian ballistic missiles were destroyed under the control of American observers, and Kyiv handed over all 1,272 nuclear charges to Russia. From 1996 to 1999, Ukraine also eliminated 29 Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers and 487 Kh-55 air-launched cruise missiles.
The Ukrainians kept only one Tu-160 for themselves: for the Air Force Museum. Nuclear bombs, it seems, were not left as a keepsake.
Evgeny Avrorin, Scientific Supervisor of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics (Snezhinsk city), full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
In general, the production of nuclear weapons is a rather complex and subtle technology, which is used both in the production of fissile materials and directly in the creation of nuclear weapons. But when we conducted an analysis at our center about which states could create nuclear weapons, we came to the following conclusion: today absolutely any industrialized state can do it. Only a political decision is required. All information is available, nothing is unknown. The only question is technology and the investment of certain financial resources.
RG | Evgeny Nikolaevich, it is widely believed that in order to enrich uranium, which is necessary for nuclear weapons, it is required to build a special plant with cascades of hundreds of thousands of centrifuges. At the same time, the cost of creating a nuclear fuel production cycle costs more than a billion dollars. Is technology really that expensive?
Evgeny Avrorin | It depends in question. Much less nuclear materials are needed to create weapons than to create developed energy. Enrichment technology, it is, so to speak, fractional. Now it is no longer a secret that the most promising and advanced technology is the so-called "turntables", which were best developed in the Soviet Union. And these are very small devices, and each of them individually is very inexpensive. Yes, they are very low performing. And in order to obtain materials for the development of large-scale energy, they need a lot of them, which is where billions of dollars come from. At the same time, in order to obtain several kilograms of uranium necessary for the production of nuclear weapons, many such devices are not needed. Expensive, I repeat, is only mass production.
WG| The IAEA claims that about 40 countries are on the verge of creating nuclear weapons. Will threshold countries continue to grow?
Evgeny Avrorin | What does a country gain by acquiring nuclear weapons? It acquires more weight, more authority, feels more secure. These are positive factors. There is only one negative factor - the country is experiencing dissatisfaction with the international community. But, unfortunately, the example of India and Pakistan has shown that positive factors prevail. No sanctions were applied against these countries.
The negative factors of possession of nuclear weapons prevailed in such countries as South Africa and Brazil: the first eliminated them, the second was on the verge of creation, but refused to create. Even small Switzerland had a program to create nuclear weapons, but also turned it off in time. The most important thing to be offered to the so-called "threshold countries" is guarantees of their security in exchange for giving up the bombs. And we need to improve the control system. We need constant international monitoring, and not inspections that carry out one-time checks. Today this system is full of holes...
Reserves of highly enriched uranium are possessed by 43 states of the world, including 28 developing ones.
In the late 60s of the last century, Libya asked the USSR to build a reactor, and in the early 70s it tried to buy a nuclear bomb from China. The peace reactor was built, and the deal with the Chinese fell through.
Especially for the Yak-38 carrier-based vertical take-off and landing attack aircraft, the combat load of which was extremely limited, a light and compact nuclear bomb RN-28 was created. The "ammunition" of such bombs on the heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers "Kyiv" was 18 pieces.
The most powerful in the world H-bomb"Kuzkina mother" ("product 602") weighed 26.5 tons and did not fit into the bomb bay of any of the existing at that time heavy bombers. She was hung under the fuselage of a Tu-95V specially converted for this purpose and dropped on October 30, 1961 in the area of the Matochkin Shar Strait on Novaya Zemlya. The "product 602" was not accepted into service - it was intended solely for psychological pressure on the Americans.
In 1954, during the Totsk exercises, a real nuclear bomb was dropped on the "stronghold of the US Army infantry battalion", after which the troops attacked through the center of the nuclear explosion. The bomb was called Tatyana, and it was dropped from a Tu-4A, an exact copy of the American B-29 strategic bomber.
In the famous raid Israeli aviation Ilan Ramon, the future first astronaut of Israel, also took part in the Iraqi nuclear research center in Osirak. During the bombing, at least one non-Iraqi citizen, a French technician, was killed. Ilan Ramon himself did not bomb the reactor, but only on the F-15 fighter he covered the planes that struck. Ramon died in an accident on the US shuttle Columbia in 2003.
Since 1945, approximately 128 thousand nuclear charges have been produced in the world. Of these, the United States produced a little more than 70 thousand, the USSR and Russia - about 55 thousand.
The nuclear arms race began at the end of World War II when the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. Since then, several countries have prepared their own nuclear devices and others are working on their production.
United States
Nuclear testing began during World War II and ended in the early 1990s after the collapse of communism. The United States still has the most operational warheads (over 2,000), while thousands more are being dismantled.
The Americans also have nuclear weapons stationed in other NATO countries. Together with Russia, the USA is a member of the club atomic weapons that have air, sea and land-based nuclear weapons. For two decades, the United States has been working with Russia to reduce the number of nuclear weapons around the world.
Russia
Russia conducted its first nuclear test in 1949, four years after the Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During cold war the arms race led to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Today, Russia has about 1,700 operational warheads. However, nuclear experts fear that after some 1990 warheads may have fallen into the hands of third parties and are thus not counted.
Great Britain
Britain joined the nuclear club in 1951 and has about 160 warheads that can only be delivered by submarine.
France
France is the third largest nuclear power after the US and Russia. The country can launch its 300 warheads either from the air or from the sea.
China
Communist China began a nuclear program in the 1950s after the US moved some of its own warheads to Asia during the Korean War. At present, China can deploy land-based and air-launched missiles, and will be able to deliver them by submarine at the earliest.
India
India tested its first nuclear weapon in 1974 because it saw neighboring China and Pakistan as the main threat in the region. India has land and air weapons bases that could be put into service in a short time.
Pakistan
After conflicts and regional wars with India in the last forty years, Pakistan tested its first combat test in 1998 and is said to have 100 warheads.
Israel
Although Israel has never confirmed a nuclear weapon test, experts believe the country has had a nuclear weapons program for decades. Israel probably has at least 80 missiles on the ground that can deliver nuclear warheads.
North Korea
In the past few years, North Korea has been conducting underground tests. Western experts believe that the communist state has enough plutonium to build atomic bombs, but they doubt that the country can deliver them to missiles. Sanctions against the country came into force several years ago, after negotiations that failed to stop the program.
Nuclear testing in North Korea
Iran
The Western world is also concerned about Iran's plans to build an atomic bomb. International Commission on atomic energy claims to have strong evidence that Iran is producing plutonium for bombs. Iranian leaders have repeatedly stated that they only enrich uranium for nuclear power. The United Nations has placed sanctions on countries in an attempt to stop Iran's program.
Several other states at one time also had nuclear weapons programs or already produced warheads. States of the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine and Kazakhstan possessed nuclear warheads when the country collapsed, but brought it back to Russia in subsequent years.
South Africa developed nuclear weapons during the apartheid years but stopped them in 1990. Saddam Hussein was thinking about developing his own nuclear weapons in Iraq. In 2003, the United States invaded the country because they thought the dictator had weapons of mass destruction.
Argentina, Brazil and South Korea nuclear programs were stopped many years ago.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) establishes that states that have carried out nuclear explosion before January 1, 1967. Thus, de jure, the "nuclear club" includes Russia, the USA, Great Britain, France and China.
India and Pakistan are de facto nuclear states, but de jure they are not.
The first test of a nuclear charger was carried out by India on May 18, 1974. On May 11 and 13, 1998, according to the statement of the Indian side, five nuclear charges were tested, one of which was thermonuclear. India is a consistent critic of the NPT and still remains outside its framework.
A special group, according to experts, consists of non-nuclear states capable of creating nuclear weapons, but refraining, due to political and military inexpediency, from becoming nuclear states - the so-called "latent" nuclear states (Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan, The Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan and others).
Three states (Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan), which had on their territory nuclear weapons left after the collapse of the Soviet Union, signed in 1992 the Lisbon Protocol to the Treaty between the USSR and the USA on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. By signing the Lisbon Protocol, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus acceded to the NPT and were included in the list of countries that do not possess nuclear weapons.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Recent world events arouse interest in the nuclear powers of the world. How many countries for 2018 - 2019 have nuclear weapons. Everyone knows that the US and Russia have the most powerful weapons in the world, and about their confrontation. In 1945, America first used the atomic bomb, dropping it in Japan on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world community was horrified about the power and consequences. Countries, represented by leaders, consider such weapons to be a guarantee of security and sovereignty. Such a country will be reckoned with and feared.
List of nuclear powers in the world for 2019
The powers that have such weapons in their arsenal are included in the so-called "Nuclear Club". intimidation and world domination- these are the reasons for the research and manufacture of atomic weapons.
USA
- First nuclear bomb test - 1945
- Last - 1992
Takes 1st place in the number of warheads among nuclear powers. In 1945, for the first time in the world, the first Trinity bomb was detonated. In addition to a large number of warheads, the US has missiles with a range of 13,000 km that can deliver nuclear weapons to that distance.
Russia
- First tested a nuclear bomb in 1949 at the Semipalatinsk test site
- The last one was in 1990.
Russia is the rightful successor of the USSR and a power that has nuclear weapons. And for the first time the country carried out an explosion of a nuclear bomb in 1949 and by 1990 there were about 715 tests in total. Tsar bomb - this is the name of the most powerful thermonuclear bomb in the world. Its capacity is 58.6 megatons of TNT. Its development was carried out in the USSR in 1954-1961. under the leadership of I.V. Kurchatov. Tested on October 30, 1961 at the Dry Nose test site.
In 2014, President Vladimir Putin changed the military doctrine of the Russian Federation, as a result of which the country reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear or other weapons against it or its allies mass destruction, as well as any other, if the very existence of the state is threatened.
For 2017, Russia in its arsenal has launchers missile systems intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear combat missiles (Topol-M, YARS). Navy The RF Armed Forces has submarines with ballistic missiles. air force have long-range strategic bombers. The Russian Federation is rightfully considered one of the leaders among the powers possessing nuclear weapons, and one of the technologically advanced.
Great Britain
USA's best friend.
- She first tested the atomic bomb in 1952.
- Last test: 1991
Officially joined the nuclear club. The US and UK have been longtime partners and have been cooperating on the nuclear issue since 1958, when a mutual defense treaty was signed between the countries. The country does not seek to reduce nuclear weapons, but does not increase their production in view of the policy of deterring neighboring states and aggressors. The number of warheads in stock is not disclosed.
France
- In 1960, she conducted the first test.
- The last time was in 1995.
The first explosion was carried out on the territory of Algeria. A thermonuclear explosion was tested in 1968 on the Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific and since that time more than 200 weapons of mass destruction tests have been carried out. The state aspired to its independence and officially began to possess deadly - striking weapons.
China
- First test - 1964
- Last - 1996
The state has officially declared that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons, and also guarantees not to use it against countries that do not have lethal weapons.
India
- First nuclear bomb test - 1974
- Last - 1998
It officially recognized that it had nuclear weapons only in 1998 after successful underground explosions at the Pokharan test site.
Pakistan
- Tested weapons for the first time - May 28, 1998
- Last time - May 30, 1998
In response to nuclear weapons explosions in India, a series of underground tests were conducted in 1998.
North Korea
- 2006 - first explosion
- 2016 is the last one.
In 2005, the leadership of the DPRK announced the creation of a dangerous bomb and in 2006 conducted its first underground test. The second time the explosion was carried out in 2009. And in 2012, it officially declared itself a nuclear power. AT last years the situation on the Korean peninsula has escalated and the DPRK periodically threatens the United States nuclear bomb if it continues to intervene in the conflict with South Korea.
Israel
- allegedly tested a nuclear warhead in 1979.
The country is not officially the owner of nuclear weapons. The State does not deny or confirm the presence of nuclear weapons. But there is evidence that Israel has such warheads.
Iran
The world community accuses this power of creating nuclear weapons, but the state declares that it does not possess such weapons and is not going to produce them. Research has been carried out only in peaceful purposes, and that scientists have mastered the entire cycle of uranium enrichment and only for peaceful purposes.
South Africa
The state possessed nuclear weapons in the form of missiles, but voluntarily destroyed them. There is information that Israel assisted in the creation of the bombs.
History of occurrence
The beginning of the creation of a deadly bomb was laid in 1898, when the spouses Pierre and Maria Suladovskaya-Curie discovered that some substance in uranium releases a huge amount of energy. Subsequently, Ernest Rutherford studied the atomic nucleus, and his colleagues Ernest Walton and John Cockcroft in 1932 first split the atomic nucleus. And in 1934 Leo Szilard patented the nuclear bomb.
