Global Nuclear Landscape 2018: Official American Intelligence Inventory of Nuclear Stockpiles in Russia, China, North Korea, Facilities Maps, Warheads and Delivery Systems including Missile Forces

This important report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction - it is not a print replica, and thus it is suitable for all devices. Contents: Global Nuclear Landscape 2018 * 2019 U.S. Intelligence Community Worldwide Threat Assessment.

Russia is committed to modernizing and adding new military capabilities to its nuclear forces. Land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are controlled by the Strategic Rocket Forces (SRF), and sea- and air-based strategic systems are managed by the Navy and Aerospace Force, respectively. Russia plans to upgrade the capacity of its strategic nuclear triad by 2020. In addition to its strategic nuclear weapons, Russia is adding new military capabilities to its large stockpile of nonstrategic nuclear weapons (NSNWs), including those employable by ships, aircraft, and ground forces. The SRF operates three older ICBM systems for more than one-half of its land-based nuclear delivery vehicles: the silo-based SS-18 and SS-19, which respectively carry 10 and 6 MIRVs, and the single-warhead SS-25. These systems will be withdrawn from service and replaced with newer, more modern road-mobile and silo-based ICBMs as they reach the end of their operational lives by 2021.

China continues to modernize and add new military capabilities to its nuclear forces by enhancing silo-based ICBMs and adding more survivable mobile delivery systems, including four Jin class ballistic missile submarines. China has the most active and diverse ballistic missile development program in the world. Its ballistic missile force is expanding in both size and types of missiles, with China developing advanced new mobile, solid-propellant ICBMs. The number of warheads on Chinese ICBMs capable of threatening the United States is likely to continue growing. In addition to strategic nuclear forces, China has long maintained theater nuclear forces and is in the process of improving delivery capabilities for these forces.

China has the required industrial capacity to enrich uranium and produce plutonium for military needs. The China National Nuclear Corporation, the largest nuclear enterprise in China, operates several uranium enrichment facilities organized under three plants (plants 405, 504, and 814) that primarily support the nation's burgeoning nuclear power industry, but China could devote some enrichment capacity to support military needs. China's plutonium production reactors (plants 404 and 821) probably ceased operation in the 1980s; however, China's reprocessing facilities at plant 404 can extract plutonium from spent reactor fuel if required. China's only nuclear weapon design and production organization—the China Academy of Engineering Physics—is key in developing and maintaining China's nuclear force. It has tens of thousands of employees, and its scientists are capable of all aspects of nuclear weapon design research, including nuclear physics, materials science, electronics, explosives, and computer modeling.