China's nuclear arsenal increased from 410 warheads in January 2023 to 500 in January 2024, and is expected to keep growing.
New Delhi: With 172 nuclear weapons, India is now ahead of Pakistan in the ranking of nuclear-armed countries across the world, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a Swedish think-tank, has found.
The report released this week stated that India’s nuclear arsenal has seen a slight expansion, growing from 164 warheads in January 2023 to 172 warheads by January 2024, placing it 6th among the world’s nuclear-armed states. Pakistan, meanwhile, has recorded no increase in the number of warheads which stood at 170 both in January 2023 and 2024.
China’s nuclear arsenal has increased significantly from 410 warheads in January 2023 to 500 by January 2024, with expectations of continued growth, as noted by SIPRI. Further, it finds that Russia and the USA collectively possess nearly 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons.
The findings also reveal that among the nine nuclear-armed nations, including the US, Russia, France, China, India, and Pakistan, there has been ongoing modernization of nuclear arsenals, with several countries deploying new nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023.
It said that the global inventory includes approximately 12,121 nuclear warheads, with about 9,585 held in military stockpiles. Around 3,904 of these warheads are deployed with missiles and aircraft, marking an increase of 60 from January 2023, while the remainder are in central storage.
Approximately 2,100 of the deployed warheads are on high operational alert, primarily held by Russia and the USA, with China believed to have joined this category for the first time, SIPRI said, adding that both Moscow and America possess over 1,200 retired warheads, which they are gradually dismantling.
