How many nuclear weapons do India, Pak, China have? 7 points from SIPRI report

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a Swedish think-tank, has published a report on the nuclear weapons in possession of different countries globally.

It said nine nuclear-armed nations, including the US, Russia, France, China, India, and Pakistan, continued to modernise their nuclear arsenals, and several of them deployed new nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023.

Here are some interesting facts the report has revealed.

1. India’s “stored” nuclear warheads numbered 172 in January this year, while the number for Pakistan was 170. India slightly expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2023, with both India and Pakistan continuing to develop new types of nuclear delivery systems in that year. “While Pakistan remains the main focus of India’s nuclear deterrent, India appears to be placing growing emphasis on longer-range weapons, including those capable of reaching targets throughout China,” the report said.

2. China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 410 warheads in January 2023 to 500 in January 2024, and it is expected to keep growing.

3. India, Pakistan, and North Korea are all pursuing the capability to deploy multiple warheads on ballistic missiles, something Russia, France, the UK, the US and more recently China already have. 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, said the report.

4. Some 2,100 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles, and nearly all of them belonged to Russia or the US. However, for the first time China is believed to have some warheads on high operational alert.

5. Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,121 warheads in January 2024, about 9,585 were in military stockpiles for potential use. An estimated 3,904 of those warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft — 60 more than in January 2023 — and the rest were in central storage.

6. Russia and the US together possess almost 90 per cent of all nuclear weapons. The sizes of their respective military stockpiles seem to have remained relatively stable in 2023, although Russia is estimated to have deployed around 36 more warheads with operational forces than in January 2023.

7. China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as either Russia or the US by the turn of the decade. Yet, China’s stockpile of nuclear warheads is still expected to remain much smaller than the stockpiles of either of Russia and the US.

“China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country,” said Hans M Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme and Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

(With agency inputs)