(MENAFN- UkrinForm) In 2023, nine nuclear powers - the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the DPRK and Israel - continued to modernise their nuclear arsenals.
According to Ukrinform, this was reported in a SIPRI report .
At the same time, some of these countries deployed new nuclear weapons .
It is noted that in January 2024, out of the total global stockpile of approximately 12,121 nuclear warheads, about 9,585 were in military stockpiles for potential use.
SIPRI estimates that 3,904 of these warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft, 60 more than in January 2023, and the rest were in central storage. About 2,100 deployed warheads were on high alert on ballistic missiles.
"Nearly all of these warheads belonged to Russia or the USA, but for the first time China is believed to have some warheads on high operational alert," the report said.
According to SIPRI Director Dan Smith, despite the fact that the total number of nuclear warheads in the world continues to decline as Cold War weapons are gradually dismantled, SIPRI experts continue to observe an annual increase in the number of operational nuclear weapons. He stressed that this trend will continue and is likely to accelerate in the coming years.
India, Pakistan, and North Korea are trying to deploy multiple warheads on ballistic missiles, which are already in the possession of Russia, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and recently China.
"This would enable a rapid potential increase in deployed warheads, as well as the possibility for nuclear-armed countries to threaten the destruction of significantly more targets," the report said.
At the same time, the Russian Federation and the United States together possess almost 90% of all nuclear weapons in the world. The Institute's analysts point out that the size of their respective military nuclear stockpiles (i.e., usable warheads) seems to have remained relatively stable in 2023, although it is estimated that the Russian Federation deployed about 36 more warheads in its operational forces than in January 2023.
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It is also noted that transparency about nuclear forces has decreased in both states since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the debate over nuclear sharing arrangements has become even more relevant.
Regarding China's nuclear arsenal, SIPRI's estimate of its size increased from 410 warheads in January 2023 to 500 in January 2024, and is expected to continue growing.
As Ukrinform reported earlier , in 2022, the Chinese authorities increased the country's nuclear arsenal by 60 warheads to 410.
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