DefenceTalkThe world’s biggest nuclear powers, the US and Russia, are slowly reducing their nuclear arsenals but are modernizing their capacities, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday. Nine states — the US, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — had 15,395 nuclear warheads at the start of 2016, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-russia-cutting-nuke-arsenals-but-modernizing-study-67646/

DefenceTalkRussian “Barguzin” strategic missile trains may become an asymmetric response to NATO’s complex European Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system deployed in Romania and Poland, military experts believe. Russian designers have begun to create new elements of “Barguzin” – Russia’s combat railway missile complex (BZhRK) aimed at transporting and launching strategic nuclear missiles. Citing a military […]https://www.defencetalk.com/why-russias-reviving-its-nuke-trains-67499/

DefenceTalkThe world needs to do more to prevent “nuclear terrorism”, the head of the UN atomic watchdog has warned ahead of an important summit and in the wake of the Brussels terror attacks. “Terrorism is spreading and the possibility of using nuclear material cannot be excluded,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano told […]https://www.defencetalk.com/un-atomic-chief-warns-on-nuclear-terrorism-67190/

DefenceTalkA report examining nuclear security worldwide suggests India’s “nuclear security measures may be weaker than those of Pakistan”, but says the risk “appears to be moderate”, while claiming risk of nuclear theft in Pakistan “appears to be high”. The Harvard Kennedy School report, “Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: Continuous Improvement or Dangerous Decline?”, says it is difficult […]https://www.defencetalk.com/indian-nuclear-security-measures-weaker-than-pakistans-report-67139/

DefenceTalkNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered an upcoming nuclear warhead test and multiple ballistic missile launches, escalating Pyongyang’s face-off with the international community just days after being slapped with tough UN sanctions. The order came after Kim monitored what was described as the successful simulated test of the warhead re-entry technology required for a […]https://www.defencetalk.com/north-korea-leader-orders-nuclear-warhead-test-missile-launches-67061/

DefenceTalkNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has ordered further nuclear tests, state media said Friday, as military tensions surge on the Korean peninsula with South Korean and US forces engaged in large-scale joint exercises condemned by Pyongyang. Since the joint drills began Monday, the North has issued daily warnings and statements, talking up its nuclear strike […]https://www.defencetalk.com/north-korean-leader-orders-further-nuclear-tests-67044/

DefenceTalkNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un says his scientists have successfully miniaturized thermo-nuclear warheads to place on a ballistic missile and create a “true” deterrent, state media said Wednesday. While Pyongyang has boasted of mastering miniaturization before, this is the first time Kim has so explicitly claimed a breakthrough that experts see as a game-changing step […]https://www.defencetalk.com/kim-jong-un-says-north-korea-has-miniaturized-nuclear-warheads-66994/

DefenceTalkNorth Korea has threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike as U.S. and South Korean forces began their largest joint exercises ever conducted. The annual joint drills often intensify tensions on the divided Korean peninsula, but this year the situation is particularly volatile, given tough new United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea for its recent nuclear […]https://www.defencetalk.com/north-korea-threatens-pre-emptive-nuclear-strike-66959/

DefenceTalkLeader Kim Jong-Un has ordered North Korea’s nuclear arsenal readied for pre-emptive use at anytime, in an expected ramping up of rhetoric following the UN Security Council’s adoption of tough new sanctions on Pyongyang. The North’s nuclear warheads must be deployed “on standby so as to be fired at any moment,” Kim was quoted as […]https://www.defencetalk.com/north-korea-leader-orders-nuclear-arsenal-on-standby-66923/

DefenceTalkMinuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that make up one part of the American nuclear deterrent remain highly relevant to security. The ICBM force provides many benefits that other strategic systems do not: they shorten the time needed to execute the president’s response to a nuclear attack, increase the total number of targets an adversary […]https://www.defencetalk.com/new-icbms-necessary-to-secure-the-american-strategic-deterrent-66813/