First, lets look at the numbers.The United States maintains an arsenal of about 5,500 warheads as of 2008. These break down into 5,021 “strategic” warheads, 1,050 of which are deployed on land-based missile systems (all on Minuteman ICBMs), 1,955 on bombers (B-52, B-1B, and B-2), and 2,016 on submarines (Ohio classOf 500 “tactical” “nonstrategic” weapons, around 100 are Tomahawk cruise missiles and 400 are B61 bombs. A few hundred of the B61 bombs are located at seven bases in six European NATO countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom), the only such weapons in forward deployment). The Russian Federation maintain an stockpile of 5200 warheads as of 2008.I hope that Secretary Gates will show the President that it would be suicide to cut missiles when we do not have the same commitment from the Russians that have an advantage.
Remember, the number of nuclear weapons are fluid especially in the case of Russia