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Though the country’s nuclear arsenal has undergone no explosive testing for decades, federal experts say it can reliably obliterate targets halfway around the globe.
Oct. 30, 2025, 6:55 p.m. ET
President Trump’s threat on Wednesday to restart the testing of nuclear weapons has raised numerous knotty questions about national and global security.
The United States spends tens of billions of dollars every year on its large arsenal of the world’s deadliest weapons and the infrastructure that supports it. Here’s what you need to know about American atomic bombs and the issues involved in whether or not to test them explosively.
How many nuclear bombs does the United States have?
The American arsenal includes roughly 3,700 warheads, with about 1,700 of them currently deployed, according to the Federation of American Scientists. The group, which has long scrutinized the highly classified topic, recently updated its estimates. Nuclear weapons can be carried on warplanes like the B-2 or B-52, launched from missiles in silos on U.S. territory, or heaved from rockets on submarines.
The United States does not have the most nuclear bombs in the world, as Mr. Trump incorrectly stated on Wednesday night. That distinction belongs to the Russian Federation.
Washington is deep into a modernization program that seeks to replace every warhead with an updated version and to upgrade their carriers. The overall cost of the sprawling program over three decades is estimated at $1.7 trillion.
Does anyone actually know that an atom bomb can work?
The same logic that applies to cars — lots of maintenance and testing, even for old models — suggests that the world’s nuclear powers have much confidence that their weapons will work, if needed. The weapons are seen as igniting at the flip of a switch. Currently, the United States spends roughly $25 billion a year on nuclear weapons upkeep, a program it calls stockpile stewardship.
