For the first time in 25 years, the Indian nuclear weapons stockpiled has surpassed that of Pakistan, with a leading global tracker assessing that India now has 172 warheads, against 170 estimated to be with Pakistan.

India’s Nuclear Stockpile Crosses Pakistan For First Time In 25 years: SIPRI

For the first time in 25 years, the Indian nuclear weapons stockpiled has surpassed that of Pakistan, with a leading global tracker assessing that India now has 172 warheads, against 170 estimated to be with Pakistan. The latest report by arms tracker SIPRI also suggests that for the first time, China has put its nuclear weapons on high operational alert, mating warheads with delivery platforms like long-range missiles for short-notice strikes.

Nine nuclear-armed nations including the US, Russia, France, China, India and Pakistan, continued to modernise their nuclear arsenals and several of them deployed new nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023. In its analysis, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 410 warheads in January 2023 to 500 in January 2024, and it is expected to keep growing.

Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,121 warheads in January 2024, about 9,585 were in military stockpiles for potential use, it said.

An estimated 3,904 of those warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft — 60 more than in January 2023 — and the rest were in central storage, it said. According to the think-tank, India, Pakistan and North Korea are all pursuing the capability to deploy multiple warheads on ballistic missiles, something Russia, France, the UK, the US and more recently China already have.