STOCKHOLM — The number of deployed nuclear warheads worldwide has increased over the past year, the Swedish think tank SIPRI found in its annual report released today.
The expansion comes as Europe wrestles with its own nuclear future amidst a French plan that is drawing interest from nine countries, most recently Norway.
Of the world’s roughly 12,000 warheads in the nine nuclear-armed states, as many as 2,200 were kept on high operational alert as of January this year, an increase of up to 100 from the previous year, per SIPRI.
“The evidence is growing that the nuclear weapon states are sidelining, and even walking away from, their disarmament commitments and are instead flexing their nuclear muscles,” Hans Kristensen, associate senior fellow at SIPRI and director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists said in its press release, adding: “By reaching for nuclear solutions, states are creating new risks and fuelling arms-race dynamics.”
83 percent of the missiles with deployed warheads belong to Russia and the United States, with smaller numbers from France and the UK. China now has around 620 nuclear warheads and is expanding its arsenal faster than any other country. It could field as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as Russia or the US by the end of the decade, SIPRI found.
