According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published recently, nuclear-armed states continue to upgrade their nuclear arsenals against the backdrop of ongoing global conflicts. There is a steady rise in the number of operational nuclear warheads despite the continuous retirement of older weapons developed during the Cold War, according to the institute.
SIPRI Director Dan Smith lamented that “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."
“This trend seems likely to continue and probably accelerate in the coming years and is extremely concerning.”
It noted that the production of atomic bombs had increased since countries were banking on them as deterrence. An estimated 12, 121 nuclear warheads are available as of January, with some 9,585 attainable for possible military deployment. Out of these, 3,904 were mounted on missiles and aircraft; this is an increase of 60 from last year. The rest were kept in central storage facilities.
While the total number of nuclear weapons is being continuously reduced, mainly due to Russian and US dismantling since the Cold War, this upward trend in operational warheads underlines that nuclear tensions remain.
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