You have to remember the difference between stockpile and deliverable, plus yield and effective range. In terms of effective weapons based on the locations of the countries, the US actually has the most.
Basically, the numbers show that the street gangs of LA have more guns than the LAPD. They don't show that the street gangs have mostly 22s and 38s with the occassional uzi, while the LAPD has assault rifles and automatic shotguns handy.
In this sense we are in agreement. Even though the US stockpile has fewer actual warheads, I would concur that it is deployed in more effective posture. For some reason the Russian seem to place a high value on tactical/theater based delivery systems.
Personally I’ve always been amazed by the amount of strategic power packed into a single Ohio class submarine. Obviously, the configuration changes from time to time, but the fact that they can carry 24 Trident II missiles, and each missile can be tipped with 8 W88 warheads, and each warhead can yield up to 475 kt. That means that 192 individual targets can be engage with more than 23X the explosive force of the bombs dropped in WWII. That means that a fully loaded Ohio class sub is the world’s 4th largest nuclear power…and the
US has 14 of these bad boys. Current treaties actually limit the deliverable payload to half this amount, but does it really matter?
Here is a mind blowing picture.
LGM-118A Peacekeeper missile system being tested at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
This is a long exposure photo showing the paths of the multiple re-entry vehicles deployed by the missile. One Peacekeeper can hold up to 10 nuclear warheads, each independently targeted. Were the warheads armed with a nuclear payload, each would carry with it the explosive power of twenty-five Hiroshima-sized weapons.
Original:
http://www.smdc.army.mil/SMDCPhoto_Gallery/Missiles/Missiles.html
Source: English Wikipedia, original upload see file history
