How many nuclear weapons does the UK have?
The United Kingdom was the third state to test an independently developed nuclear weapon in October 1952. It is one of the five “Nuclear Weapons States” (NWS) under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the UK ratified in 1968. The UK is currently thought to retain a weapons stockpile of around 200 operational nuclear warheads. Since the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement, the United States and the United Kingdom have cooperated extensively on nuclear security matters. The special relationship between the two states has involved the exchange of classified scientific information and nuclear materials such as plutonium. The UK has not run an independent weapons delivery programme since the cancellation of the Blue Streak missile in the 1960s, instead pursuing joint development of US delivery systems, designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin, and fitting them with warheads designed and manufactured by the UK’s Atomic Weapons Research Establishment and its successor the Atomic W
