Nuclear spending by top 9 world powers surged to $91.4B in 2023, watchdog says
North Korea test-fires its upgraded Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile that Pyongyang claims can deliver a super-size nuclear warhead to anywhere on the continental United States. North Korea is one of nine countries an ICAN report criticizes for ramping up its nuclear arms spending in 2023.
Britain spent the third highest amount at $8.1 billion followed by France on $6.1 billon and India on $2.7 billion while spending by Pakistan, Israel and North Korea was in the region of $1 billion apiece.
Most of the money went toward modernization and updating of aging weapons and associated systems -- but some states expanded their arsenals.
With annual spending surging a "massive" 34% in the five years since it began publishing its analysis, ICAN called for the top spending countries to join the nearly 100 signatories to the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons saying countries faced a choice to "stand on the side of investment in weapons of mass destruction or to work towards their disarmament by joining the TPNW."
"The acceleration of spending on these inhumane and destructive weapons over the past five years is not improving global security but posing a global threat," said the report's co-author Alicia Sanders-Zakre.
ICAN said 20 nuclear weapons development and maintenance companies made $31 billion in 2023 with at least $7.9 billion in new contracts, bringing outstanding contracts to be fulfilled over the next decade to at least $335 billion.
The report said these jumbo profits fuel an influence-buying industry in which the nuclear weapons sector acquires sway over governments through an intertwined web involving financing think tanks, hiring lobbyists and holding high-level meetings with officials.
The report claims six big American defense contractors -- Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, RTX, Northrop Grumman and Honeywell -- collectively account for almost $86 million out of a total $118 million lobbying by the industry in France and the United States.
No fewer than 21 think tanks received funding from Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, RTX and General Dynamics.
In the European industry, Airbus and Britain's BAE Systems led the lobbying spending as well as holding 87 high-level meetings with high British officials. Rolls Royce, another big contractor, held 50 such meetings
ICAN said former executives of defense contractors went on to to join think tank boards of directors and advisory councils and sit on the boards of financial institutions with significant investments in their old companies.
The group also cites the opportunity cost of billions "squandered" on nuclear weapons every year calling it an "unacceptable misallocation of public funds" that could be used for vital public services or tackling global crises such as climate change or slowing biodiversity loss.
Sixty seconds' worth of the money spent in 2023 would cover the cost of planting one million trees, ICAN calculates, while five years of nuclear weapons spending would feed the 45 million people around the who are currently facing famine for the rest of their lives.
Nuclear arms grow more prominent amid geopolitical tensions: researchers
Agence France-Presse
June 16, 2024
(AFP)
The role of atomic weapons has become more prominent and nuclear states are modernizing arsenals as geopolitical relations deteriorate, researchers said Monday, urging world leaders to “step back and reflect”.
Diplomatic efforts to control nuclear arms also suffered major setbacks amid strained international relations over the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual yearbook.
“We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War,” Wilfred Wan, director of SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme, said in a statement.
The research institute noted that in February 2023 Russia announced it was suspending participation in the 2010 New START treaty — “the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty limiting Russian and US strategic nuclear forces."
SIPRI also noted that Russia carried out tactical nuclear weapon drills close to the Ukrainian border in May. Russian President Vladimir Putin has upped his nuclear rhetoric since the Ukraine conflict began, warning in his address to the nation in February there was a “real” risk of nuclear war.
In addition, an informal agreement between the United States and Iran reached in June 2023 was upended after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, SIPRI said.
‘Extremely concerning’
According to SIPRI, the world’s nine nuclear-armed states also “continued to modernize their nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023”.
The nine countries are the United States, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. In January, of the estimated 12,121 nuclear warheads around the world about 9,585 were in stockpiles for potential use, according to SIPRI. Around 2,100 were kept in a state of “high operational alert” on ballistic missiles.
Nearly all of these warheads belong to Russia and the United States — which together possess almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons — but China was for the first time believed to have some warheads on high operational alert.
“While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,” SIPRI director Dan Smith said.
He added that this trend would likely continue and “probably accelerate” in the coming years, describing it as “extremely concerning.”
Researchers also stressed the “continuing deterioration of global security over the past year”, as the impact from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza could be seen in “almost every aspect” of issues relating to armaments and international security.“
We are now in one of the most dangerous periods in human history,” Smith said, urging the world’s great powers to “step back and reflect. Preferably together.”
North Korea test-fires its upgraded Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile that Pyongyang claims can deliver a super-size nuclear warhead to anywhere on the continental United States. North Korea is one of nine countries an ICAN report criticizes for ramping up its nuclear arms spending in 2023.
File Photo by KCNA/UPI | License Photo
June 17 (UPI) -- Spending on nuclear weapons by the world's nine nuclear-armed states jumped by an estimated 13.4% to $91.4 billion led by the United States which accounted for more than half of the total spend, according to a new disarmament report published Monday.
An almost 18% spending hike by the United States pushed its total spend to $51.5 billion with China and Russia coming a distant and second and third with $11.9 billion and $8.3 billion, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said in its fifth annual audit of the global nuclear arms trade.
June 17 (UPI) -- Spending on nuclear weapons by the world's nine nuclear-armed states jumped by an estimated 13.4% to $91.4 billion led by the United States which accounted for more than half of the total spend, according to a new disarmament report published Monday.
An almost 18% spending hike by the United States pushed its total spend to $51.5 billion with China and Russia coming a distant and second and third with $11.9 billion and $8.3 billion, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said in its fifth annual audit of the global nuclear arms trade.
Britain spent the third highest amount at $8.1 billion followed by France on $6.1 billon and India on $2.7 billion while spending by Pakistan, Israel and North Korea was in the region of $1 billion apiece.
Most of the money went toward modernization and updating of aging weapons and associated systems -- but some states expanded their arsenals.
With annual spending surging a "massive" 34% in the five years since it began publishing its analysis, ICAN called for the top spending countries to join the nearly 100 signatories to the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons saying countries faced a choice to "stand on the side of investment in weapons of mass destruction or to work towards their disarmament by joining the TPNW."
"The acceleration of spending on these inhumane and destructive weapons over the past five years is not improving global security but posing a global threat," said the report's co-author Alicia Sanders-Zakre.
ICAN said 20 nuclear weapons development and maintenance companies made $31 billion in 2023 with at least $7.9 billion in new contracts, bringing outstanding contracts to be fulfilled over the next decade to at least $335 billion.
The report said these jumbo profits fuel an influence-buying industry in which the nuclear weapons sector acquires sway over governments through an intertwined web involving financing think tanks, hiring lobbyists and holding high-level meetings with officials.
The report claims six big American defense contractors -- Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, RTX, Northrop Grumman and Honeywell -- collectively account for almost $86 million out of a total $118 million lobbying by the industry in France and the United States.
No fewer than 21 think tanks received funding from Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, RTX and General Dynamics.
In the European industry, Airbus and Britain's BAE Systems led the lobbying spending as well as holding 87 high-level meetings with high British officials. Rolls Royce, another big contractor, held 50 such meetings
ICAN said former executives of defense contractors went on to to join think tank boards of directors and advisory councils and sit on the boards of financial institutions with significant investments in their old companies.
The group also cites the opportunity cost of billions "squandered" on nuclear weapons every year calling it an "unacceptable misallocation of public funds" that could be used for vital public services or tackling global crises such as climate change or slowing biodiversity loss.
Sixty seconds' worth of the money spent in 2023 would cover the cost of planting one million trees, ICAN calculates, while five years of nuclear weapons spending would feed the 45 million people around the who are currently facing famine for the rest of their lives.
Nuclear arms grow more prominent amid geopolitical tensions: researchers
Agence France-Presse
June 16, 2024
(AFP)
The role of atomic weapons has become more prominent and nuclear states are modernizing arsenals as geopolitical relations deteriorate, researchers said Monday, urging world leaders to “step back and reflect”.
Diplomatic efforts to control nuclear arms also suffered major setbacks amid strained international relations over the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual yearbook.
“We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War,” Wilfred Wan, director of SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme, said in a statement.
The research institute noted that in February 2023 Russia announced it was suspending participation in the 2010 New START treaty — “the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty limiting Russian and US strategic nuclear forces."
SIPRI also noted that Russia carried out tactical nuclear weapon drills close to the Ukrainian border in May. Russian President Vladimir Putin has upped his nuclear rhetoric since the Ukraine conflict began, warning in his address to the nation in February there was a “real” risk of nuclear war.
In addition, an informal agreement between the United States and Iran reached in June 2023 was upended after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, SIPRI said.
‘Extremely concerning’
According to SIPRI, the world’s nine nuclear-armed states also “continued to modernize their nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023”.
The nine countries are the United States, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. In January, of the estimated 12,121 nuclear warheads around the world about 9,585 were in stockpiles for potential use, according to SIPRI. Around 2,100 were kept in a state of “high operational alert” on ballistic missiles.
Nearly all of these warheads belong to Russia and the United States — which together possess almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons — but China was for the first time believed to have some warheads on high operational alert.
“While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,” SIPRI director Dan Smith said.
He added that this trend would likely continue and “probably accelerate” in the coming years, describing it as “extremely concerning.”
Researchers also stressed the “continuing deterioration of global security over the past year”, as the impact from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza could be seen in “almost every aspect” of issues relating to armaments and international security.“
We are now in one of the most dangerous periods in human history,” Smith said, urging the world’s great powers to “step back and reflect. Preferably together.”
China's nuclear stockpile is growing faster than any other nation, says new security report
Military vehicles carrying the DF-41 intercontinental nuclear missile roll past Tiananmen Square during a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in Beijing, China, on Oct. 1 2019. A new security report published Monday states that China's nuclear arsenal was growing faster than any other nation.
Military vehicles carrying the DF-41 intercontinental nuclear missile roll past Tiananmen Square during a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in Beijing, China, on Oct. 1 2019. A new security report published Monday states that China's nuclear arsenal was growing faster than any other nation.
File Photo by Wu Hong/EPA-EFE
June 17 (UPI) -- China's nuclear arsenal increased by nearly 100 warheads over the last year, according to a new report published Monday that warned it expects Beijing's stockpile to keep growing at a faster rate than any other nation.
Beijing's nuclear arsenal increased from 410 warheads to 500 over 2023, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Monday in its annual report on international security.
The institute added that while China's stockpile is expected to keep growing it may also be deploying a small number of warheads on missiles during peacetime.
China is modernizing and expanding its nuclear arsenal, and the report warned that though it will have a smaller stockpile of nuclear warheads than Russia or the United States by the end of the decade, it could possibly have as may intercontinental ballistic missiles as them by then.
"China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country," Hans Kristensen, associate senior fellow with SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program, said in a statement. "But in nearly all of the nuclear-armed states there are either plans or a significant push to increase nuclear forces."
The report was published amid growing tensions in much of the world. Relations have continued fray between the West and China, and Russia's war in Ukraine as well as Israel's against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza have raised worries about growing conflicts and about present conflicts turning nuclear.
According to the institute of the world's estimated 12,121 warheads, more than 9,500 were in military stockpiles for potential use with an estimated 3,904 having been deployed as of January 2024, representing an increase in 60 from a year earlier.
It continued that some 2,100 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert and while nearly all belonged to either Russia or the United States -- which account for 90% of all nuclear weapons -- China is believed to have a few of them.
Overall, the number of nuclear warheads continues to decline, but that is attributed to the United States and Russia dismantling older warheads while overall numbers are seeming to rise, it said.
"While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads," SIPRI Director Dan Smith said in a statement.
"This trend seems likely to continue and probably accelerate in the coming years and is extremely concerning."
Along with the United States, Russia and China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel have nuclear weapons.
June 17 (UPI) -- China's nuclear arsenal increased by nearly 100 warheads over the last year, according to a new report published Monday that warned it expects Beijing's stockpile to keep growing at a faster rate than any other nation.
Beijing's nuclear arsenal increased from 410 warheads to 500 over 2023, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Monday in its annual report on international security.
The institute added that while China's stockpile is expected to keep growing it may also be deploying a small number of warheads on missiles during peacetime.
China is modernizing and expanding its nuclear arsenal, and the report warned that though it will have a smaller stockpile of nuclear warheads than Russia or the United States by the end of the decade, it could possibly have as may intercontinental ballistic missiles as them by then.
"China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country," Hans Kristensen, associate senior fellow with SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program, said in a statement. "But in nearly all of the nuclear-armed states there are either plans or a significant push to increase nuclear forces."
The report was published amid growing tensions in much of the world. Relations have continued fray between the West and China, and Russia's war in Ukraine as well as Israel's against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza have raised worries about growing conflicts and about present conflicts turning nuclear.
According to the institute of the world's estimated 12,121 warheads, more than 9,500 were in military stockpiles for potential use with an estimated 3,904 having been deployed as of January 2024, representing an increase in 60 from a year earlier.
It continued that some 2,100 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert and while nearly all belonged to either Russia or the United States -- which account for 90% of all nuclear weapons -- China is believed to have a few of them.
Overall, the number of nuclear warheads continues to decline, but that is attributed to the United States and Russia dismantling older warheads while overall numbers are seeming to rise, it said.
"While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads," SIPRI Director Dan Smith said in a statement.
"This trend seems likely to continue and probably accelerate in the coming years and is extremely concerning."
Along with the United States, Russia and China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel have nuclear weapons.
