[ad_1]
The nine nuclear-armed states, including the United States and Russia, are likely to increase and modernize their nuclear warhead arsenals and be more vocal on the issue in the next decade, according to a study. this is seen as a “worrying trend”.
The Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual report for 2022, published on June 13, that despite a marginal decline in the number of nuclear warheads last year, arsenals are expected to grow over the next ten years. next.
“The nine countries that are armed with nuclear weapons – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and (North Korea“- are continuing to modernize their nuclear arsenals, although there has been a slight decline in the total number of nuclear warheads in the period January 2021- January 2022, the number will likely increase in the next decade,” said SIPRI.
“There are clear indications that the reductions that have characterized global nuclear arsenals since the end of the Cold War have come to an end,” said Hans M. Kristensen, senior researcher at the Weapons of Mass Destruction Program at SIPRI, also director of the Project for Nuclear Information at the American Federation of Scientists (FAS).
Wilfred Wan, director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Program at SIPRI, said that “all countries with nuclear weapons are increasing or updating their arsenal, and most are sharpening nuclear rhetoric and the role that nuclear weapons play in their strategies. military”.
“This is a very worrying trend,” he added.
SIPRI estimated that the nuclear states together had an inventory of 12,705 nuclear warheads at the beginning of 2022 and of that number, 9,440 were in military stockpiles ready for potential use.
The institute also estimated that 3,732 nuclear warheads had been deployed on missiles or aircraft with about 2,000 of them in high operational readiness – and almost all of them belonged to Russia or the United States.
The total inventory of U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads continued to decline in 2021, but SIPRI added that this was largely due to the dismantling of nuclear warheads that have been removed from military service in recent years.
These two nuclear powers are estimated to have 90 percent of all nuclear warheads, SIPRI said.
The report states that by January 2022, the US had deployed 1,744 nuclear warheads out of 5,428 in stock. Russia, meanwhile, had deployed 1,588 nuclear warheads out of a total of 5,977.
The other seven countries that have nuclear weapons are developing or have developed new weapons systems or have expressed a desire to do so. China in particular is in the midst of a substantial expansion of its nuclear arsenal.
Rivals Pakistan (which has 165 nuclear warheads in stock) and India (160) have arsenals of similar size./ REL
[ad_2]
Source link
