Nuclear Powers Continue To Modernize Their Arsenals As Total Warhead Numbers Decrease

A B61 nuclear bomb on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

RFE: Nuclear Powers Modernize Arsenals As Warheads Decrease: SIPRI

A Sweden-based nonproliferation think tank says nuclear powers have continued to modernize their arsenals despite a decrease in the number of nuclear warheads.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report released on June 15 that nine nuclear weapon powers -- the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea -- together possessed an estimated 13,400 nuclear weapons at the start of 2020.

The number is down by 465 nuclear weapons in “a marked decrease” from the previous year when the nine states possessed a combined estimated total of 13,865 nuclear weapons, according to SIPRI.

The decrease "was largely due to the dismantlement of retired nuclear weapons by Russia and the U.S. -- which together still possess over 90 per cent of global nuclear weapons.”

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