The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Sipri annual report: nuclear powers are modernizing their arsenals

2022-06-12T22:32:22.184Z


In 2021, the number of nuclear weapons worldwide has fallen. No reason to give the all-clear, according to the annual report of the peace research institute Sipri. The warheads are being modernized and the total number will soon increase again.


Enlarge image

Military parade in Moscow in June 2020

Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP

In the past year, the number of nuclear weapons around the world has fallen.

At the same time, nuclear arsenals are becoming more modern and more important for global military strategies - and within the next ten years they are likely to grow again numerically.

These are the main findings of the annual report by the Stockholm peace research institute Sipri, which deals with the proliferation of nuclear weapons, among other things.

"All nuclear-armed states are expanding or expanding their arsenals," says Sipri researcher Wilfred Wan, who primarily studies weapons of mass destruction.

In addition, nuclear powers would "intensify their nuclear rhetoric and the role that nuclear weapons play in their military strategies," he warns.

"This is a very worrying trend."

The estimated total number of nuclear warheads worldwide at the beginning of this year was 12,705, according to Sipri.

According to the researchers, the fact that there are almost 380 fewer explosive devices than a year ago is mainly due to the fact that old weapons have been dismantled.

In particular, the two main nuclear powers – Russia and the USA – have dismantled nuclear weapons that they had withdrawn from military use years ago.

However, the number of warheads that could actually be used by the two countries remained stable.

Worrying trend

According to Sipri, the trend is worrying.

"There are clear signs that the reduction in the global nuclear arsenal has come to an end since the end of the Cold War," says peace researcher Hans M. Kristensen.

Another cause for concern, according to the Sipri report, is Russia's open threats to use nuclear weapons in the context of its war of aggression against Ukraine.

Russia and the United States together possess more than 90 percent of all nuclear weapons in the world.

According to Sipri, the two nuclear powers also have almost all of the nuclear warheads in the world that were "on high alert," meaning they were ready for immediate use.

According to Sipri, that's around 2,000 explosive devices.

But the other nuclear powers are also arming themselves.

In particular, China appears to be attempting to narrow the wide gap with Russia and the US.

According to Sipri, Beijing is in the process of "substantially" expanding its nuclear arsenal.

This shows, among other things, the construction of more than 300 new missile silos, which could be observed via satellite images.

Western countries are also expanding or modernizing their arsenals.

The UK, for example, decided in 2021 to raise the ceiling on its nuclear arsenal, the report says.

In addition, London had announced that it would no longer publish exact figures about its actually functioning nuclear arsenal.

France last year launched a program to develop new nuclear-powered submarines that can be equipped with ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads.

Other countries that, according to Sipri, are developing their nuclear arsenals are the two South Asian nuclear powers India and Pakistan, as well as North Korea and Israel.

For Pyongyang, military nuclear programs remain the focus of its own defense strategy.

The true strength of North Korea's nuclear capabilities can only be guessed at.

Jerusalem, on the other hand, has not publicly admitted to possessing nuclear weapons to this day - Sipri nevertheless assumes that there are 90 warheads.

Dangerous ambiguity

According to the Stockholm Institute, the ambiguity of nuclear powers makes global dynamics particularly problematic: "Although there have been some significant advances in both nuclear arms control and nuclear disarmament over the past year, the risk of using nuclear weapons today appears to be higher than at any time since the height of the Cold War,” says Sipri director Dan Smith.

A positive aspect is continued compliance with the »New START« disarmament agreement between the USA and Russia, which limits the number of strategic nuclear weapons.

However, the agreement applies only to strategic nuclear warheads.

So-called tactical nuclear weapons, which can be used in the context of conventional combat, for example, are not included.

Global advances also include the entry into force of the TPNW Treaty, which has been signed or ratified by dozens of countries.

However, this does not include the nuclear powers.

Five of them - the USA, Russia, China, France and Great Britain - had just published a joint statement in January this year, which said: "The nuclear war cannot be won and must never be waged."

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, such statements seem like something from another era: "Relations between the world's great powers have continued to deteriorate at a time when humanity and the planet face a number of profound and urgent common challenges that... can only be tackled through international cooperation,” said Stefan Löfven, Chairman of the Sipri Board of Directors.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-06-12

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-06T16:20:59.536Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.