The U.S. will "maintain a ready and credible nuclear deterrent” while ensuring the full potential of existing nuclear weapons, reports
Press TV.
In addition to Hagel's speech, a report released by the Pentagon on Wednesday detailing the U.S.'s nuclear strategy shows that Washington intends on keeping its nuclear bombers, ballistic missile submarines, as well as its ICBMs.
Earlier in 2010, the United States and the Russian Federation signed a pact known as New START Treaty, vowing to reduce the number of stored nuclear warheads down to 1,550 each, by 2018.
Despite claims and pledges to diminish nuclear warheads, it appears that both sides have not seriously taken the treaty into account. To complicate matters further, Hagel's new announcement has led Russian authorities to question the U.S.'s determination on solving this issue. Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin commented, "How can we take the idea of strategic nuclear weapons reductions seriously when the United States is building up its ability to intercept these strategic nuclear weapons?"
The millions of warheads in the superpowers' hands date back to the time of the Cold War, where the former Soviet Union and the United States embarked on a massive arms race. As a result, the contenders produced thousands of nuclear warheads, enough to destroy the entire world at least twice in a row.
