According to the
Federation of American Scientists, an organization that assesses nuclear weapon stockpiles, in 2013,
Russia possessed an estimated 8,500 total nuclear
warheads of which 1,800 were strategically operational. The organization also claims that the U.S. had an estimated total 7,700 nuclear warheads of which 1,950 were strategically operational. According to Mark Schneider of the National Institute of Public Policy Russian strategic nuclear weapons now deployed number near 2500, considerably greater than the nominal treaty limits of 1550 under the New Start treaty. This is in large part due to the special bomber counting rules allowed by the treaty which counts each strategic nuclear bomber as one warhead irrespective of the number of warheads--gravity bombs and/or cruise missiles carried by the aircraft.