"There are 13,865 nuclear warheads worldwide, and they are owned by nine countries," a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden, said Sunday.
SIPRI named the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea as countries to possess nuclear capabilities, saying that combined, they have as many as 13,865 nuclear heads, of which 3,750 are operational and an estimated 2,000 are being kept in a state of alert. Overall, however, the number of warheads has declined over the past year, the report found.
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SIPRI noted that despite maintaining a long-term policy of ambiguity with regard to its nuclear arsenal, Israel is believed to possess between 80 and 90 nuclear warheads.
While there is a general decline in the number of nuclear warheads, countries that possess them continue to increase their stockpiles, with the US and Russia the only ones so far who have reduced their stockpiles, by 265 and 350 warheads, respectively.
"Britain, China, Pakistan, North Korea and perhaps Israel have increased the number of their warheads. For India and France, there was no change in the number of nuclear weapons," the report said.
The United States, for example, has 1,750 nuclear missiles and 4,435 nuclear weapons in stockpiles. Russia has 1,600 nuclear missiles and 4,900 additional nuclear weapons in warehouses, according to the report.
A policy of ambiguity is not unique to Israel. The report pointed to the lack of transparency among many countries with regard to their nuclear stockpiles. So far, the US, the UK, and France have disclosed information about their nuclear arsenals. Data from other countries is based mainly on missile tests and the supply of military-grade fissile material, which is used to release high amounts of energy and generate large explosions.
