Global nuclear weapons inventories, 1945–2010

Abstract

ing the exact number of nuclear weapons in the world. Nuclear weapon states shield details about their arsenals and generally have only imprecise knowledge about the size and composition of other countries' inventories; this creates uncertainty, mistrust, and misunderstandings. More transparency would alleviate this, and in fact, Britain, France, and the United States have recently taken steps to provide additional nuclear data to the public. We estimate that the world's nine nuclear weapon states possess nearly 22,400 intact nuclear warheads. The vast majority of these weapons-approximately 95 percent-are in the U.S. and Russian arsenals. Nearly 8,000 warheads-nearly one-third of the worldwide total-are operational to some degree (not necessarily fully operational) and ready to launch on relatively short notice. We estimate that approximately 1,880 warheads are on different levels of alert: Russia, 960 warheads; United States, 810; France, 64; and Britain, 48. The stockpiles of the nations that are not recognized as nuclear weapon states under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty-Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea-are minuscule in comparison with those of Russia and the United States and are especially difficult to estimate. India and Pakistan have a combined total of approximately 150 nuclear warheads, just a few more than what is carried on a single U.S. Trident submarine. Though Israel has not acknowledged it possesses nuclear weapons, the U.S. intelligence community estimates that it has an arsenal of approximately 80 warheads. North Korea remains a mystery, but it may have enough

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“…3 And India's nuclear capacity has in fact remained limited in scope, probably consisting of sixty to eighty weapons. 4 India's 1999 draft nuclear doctrine stated that the purposes of this arsenal were limited as well: Indian nuclear weapons were intended only to deter nuclear attack through the threat of retaliation in kind. India would thus seek ''credible minimum deterrence'' derived from the smallest possible nuclear arsenal and would adopt a posture of no nuclear first use.…”

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“…At the time of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the number was 29,150 (Norris and Kristensen 2010). At 69,368, the amount of nuclear weapons reached a historical high in 1986 (Norris and Kristensen 2010).…”

“…At the time of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the number was 29,150 (Norris and Kristensen 2010). At 69,368, the amount of nuclear weapons reached a historical high in 1986 (Norris and Kristensen 2010). In 2016, there were 15,395 nuclear weapons, controlled by nine countries (USA, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea) (SIPRI 2016).…”