Stockholm’s peace research institute Sirpi hopes that nuclear powers will continue to expand and modernize their arsenals. The danger of using nuclear weapons is greater than at any time since the Cold War.
Despite a slight decline in the number of nuclear weapons and nuclear warheads available worldwide over the past year, the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (Sipri) expects the nuclear arsenals of the nine nuclear powers to grow again in the next decade. The danger of using nuclear weapons is also greater than at any time since the Cold War, Sirpi director Dan Smith said at the Sipri yearbook presentation on Monday.
All nuclear powers are expanding or modernizing their fields, and most are also stepping up “nuclear rhetoric” and strengthening the role of nuclear weapons in their military strategy, according to the 2022 Yearbook. Wilfred Wan, director of the SIPRI program for weapons of mass destruction, said in a broadcast. Overall, there are clear signs of an end to the continued depletion of the global nuclear arsenal that characterized the post-Cold War era.
Of an estimated 12,705 warheads from the nine nuclear-armed states – the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, plus the United States and Russia – 9,440 were in military stockpiles for potential use at the start of the year, write the Stockholm-based peace researchers. Of these, about 3,732 nuclear warheads are operational and about 2,000 are on high alert — nearly all in US or Russian stockpiles.
Russia and the US have more than 90% of the nuclear arsenal
Russia (5,977) and the United States (5,428) – which still own more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear arsenal – continued to reduce the number of their nuclear warheads over the past year, but according to Sipri, this is mainly due to disposal of weapons that were discarded years ago. The number of operational nuclear warheads has remained relatively stable over the past year. For the next ten years, Swedish experts predict an increase in the number of nuclear weapons worldwide.
For example, China is in the process of substantially increasing its arsenal. Britain has already announced that it wants to raise the cap on nuclear warheads for the first time in decades. France is currently developing the third generation of the nuclear-powered submarine launch vehicle (SSBN), and India, Pakistan and Israel, which have refused to officially disclose their nuclear stockpiles, are also working to expand and renew their nuclear arsenals. the Sipri report says.
North Korea continues to prioritize its nuclear weapons program as a “core element” of its national security strategy. Sipri experts estimate that the country currently has 20 nuclear warheads and enough material for 25 to 35 more.
Matt Korda, SIPRI’s expert on weapons of mass destruction and a member of the Federation of American Scientists, warned that unless states with nuclear arsenals take “immediate and concrete” steps to disarm, stockpiles of nuclear warheads will soon increase by the first time since the Cold War. War (FAS).
(APA)