The Swedish think tank SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) has recently published a new report and made some new observations.
Firstly, nuclear armed countries continue to strengthen their nuclear arsenals amidst the various conflicts plaguing the world. Another, the number of functional nuclear warheads is slowly and steadily increasing.
As per SIPRI director Dan Smith, he highlighted, that even though global total of nuclear warheads continues to decrease, but year-on-year, there is an increase in operation nuclear warheads.
‘While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads.’ said SIPRI Director.
Meanwhile, the report also highlights, this steady rise of nuclear warheads will probably continue and most likely, it will speed up in upcoming years.
‘This trend seems likely to continue and probably accelerate in the coming years and is extremely concerning.’ said report.
Currently, out of a total of 12,121 recorded nuclear warheads globally, approximately 9,585 are part of military stockpiles intended for potential future use.
According to SIPRI, around 3,904 warheads are mounted on missiles and aircraft, with an additional 60 added compared to the same month in the previous year. Moreover, the rest of them are locked in a storage facility.