SIPRI REPORT - INTERNATIONAL
News: China could have as many ICBMs as U.S. or Russia by turn of decade:
think tank
What is in the news?
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Recently, the size of
China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 350 warheads in January 2022 to 410 in
January 2023, and it is expected to keep growing, according to estimations by
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Key takeaways from the
news:
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The think tank said that
China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles
(ICBMs) as either the U.S. or Russia by the turn of the decade.
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The number of operational
nuclear weapons started to rise as countries’ long-term force modernization and
expansion plans progressed.
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The nine nuclear-armed
states, the United States, Russia, the
United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel continue to modernize their
nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable
weapon systems in 2022.
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Russia
and the U.S. together possess almost 90% of all nuclear weapons.
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The sizes of their
respective nuclear arsenals (usable warheads) seem to have remained relatively
stable in 2022.
India specific findings:
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According to SIPRI
estimates, the nuclear arsenals of India
grew from 160 in 2022 to 164 in 2023 and that of Pakistan from 165 to 170.
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India, which has a no-first-use policy for use of nuclear
weapons and has completed its nuclear
triad with the fielding of two ballistic missile nuclear submarines, is in
the process of upgrading its ballistic missiles.
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While a
submarine-launched intermediate range ballistic missile is under development, a
new generation ballistic missile, ‘Agni
Prime’, with a range between 1,000 km-2,000 km, is close to being inducted.
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This system will replace
older Agni missiles in this range.
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India has also inducted Agni-5, which has a range of over 5,000 km.