According to a new report released Wednesday, the number of operational nuclear warheads around the globe increased in 2022. Which is led primarily by Russia and China.
According to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor published by the NGO Norwegian People’s Aid. The nine official and unofficial nuclear powers held 9,576 ready-to-use nuclear warheads at the start of 2023. Up from 9,440 the previous year, with a “collective destructive power” equal to “more than 135,000 Hiroshima bombs.”
As of early 2022, Russia has a stockpile of approximately 4,477 nuclear warheads assigned for use by long-range strategic launchers. Shorter-range tactical nuclear forces, which is a slight decrease from last year. Approximately 1,588 strategic warheads are distributed from the stockpiled warheads.
Russia is nearing the end of a decades-long modernization of its strategic and nonstrategic nuclear forces, with the goal of replacing Soviet-era weapons with more contemporary systems.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu revealed in December 2021 that modern weapons and equipment now account for 89.1 percent of Russia’s nuclear triad.
Russia’s nuclear modernization projects, along with an increase in the number and size of military drills.
The odd explicit nuclear threat directed at other countries adds to uncertainty about Russia’s long-term intentions.
In the early 1990s, Ukraine surrendered a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons left over by the Soviet Union, and used the fuel from its blended-down warheads to power its nuclear power facilities. Ukraine does not even have the basic infrastructure to make nuclear fuel today, despite Mr. Putin’s dubious claim that it could do so rapidly.