How many nuclear weapons are there – and how many do we need?
Today the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) launches the findings of “SIPRI Yearbook 2013″, which assesses the current state of international security, armaments and disarmament.
Key findings include:
- Alone among the five legally recognized nuclear weapon states, China expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2012;
- The number of personnel deployed with peace operations worldwide is falling rapidly, due to the withdrawal from Afghanistan;
- Progress towards a global ban on cluster munitions stalled in 2012.
In its media release, SIPRI states:
“At the start of 2013 eight states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel—possessed approximately 4400 operational nuclear weapons. Nearly 2000 of these are kept in a state of high operational alert. If all nuclear warheads are counted, these states together possess a total of approximately 17 265 nuclear weapons (see table), as compared with 19 000 at the beginning of 2012.
The decrease is due mainly to Russia and the USA further reducing their inventories of strategic nuclear weapons under the terms of the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) as well as retiring ageing and obsolescent weapons.
At the same time, all five legally recognized nuclear weapon states—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States—are either deploying new nuclear weapon delivery systems or have announced programmes to do so, and appear determined to retain their nuclear arsenals indefinitely. Of the five, only China seems to be expanding its nuclear arsenal. India and Pakistan are both expanding their nuclear weapon stockpiles and missile delivery capabilities.”
You can read the media release, with details of weapons for each nuclear state, here.