In a year, global inventory of N-warheads rises by 86

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, June 28

Global inventory of nuclear warheads has increased over the past year. China, India and Pakistan are among nine countries that have nuclear weapons and have added numbers to their respective arsenal.

As on January 2023, the world has 9,576 weapons in military stockpiles for potential use. That is 86 more than the number in January 2022. Of this stockpile, an estimated 3,844 warheads were ‘deployed’ with missiles and aircraft.

Around 2,000 of these ‘deployed’ weapons — nearly all of which belonged to Russia or the USA—were kept in a state of high operational alert, meaning that they were fitted to missiles or held at airbases hosting nuclear bombers.

China, Pak & India also add numbers

9 nuclear armed states — US, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel

9,576 total nuclear warheads in military stockpiles in world

410 with China, rising from 350 last year

170 with Pakistan, up from 165 last year

164 with India, growing from 160 last year

These are the findings of Sweden-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) which today released its annual assessment of ‘state of armaments, disarmament and international security’.

“The number of operational nuclear weapons started to rise as countries’ long-term force modernisation and expansion plans progressed,” the SIPRI said. Nine nuclear-armed states — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — continue to modernise their nuclear arsenals and deployed several new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2022, the think-tank said.

“The estimate of the size of China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 350 warheads in January 2022 to 410 in January 2023 and it is expected to keep growing,” said the SIPRI. Depending on how it decides to structure its forces, China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as either the USA or Russia by the turn of the decade.

India was estimated to have a growing stockpile of about 164 nuclear weapons, up from 160 the previous year. “These weapons were assigned to a maturing nuclear triad of aircraft, land-based missiles and nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs),” the SIPRI said.

According to SIPRI estimates, Pakistan possessed approximately 170 nuclear warheads as of January 2023 — up from 165 from the previous year. These weapons were assigned to Pakistan’s nascent triad of aircraft, ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles, and sea-launched cruise missiles.

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