“SIPRI estimates, China now has at least 600 nuclear warheads, growth – about 100 new warheads a year since 2023”, – WRITE: www.radiosvoboda.org
Sipri estimates, China now has at least 600 nuclear warheads, growth – about 100 new warheads a year since 2023. By January 2025, China completed or was close to the completion of construction of about 350 new mines for the IBR in three large desert areas in the north of the country and three mountainous areas in the east.
“Depending on how it decides to structure its forces, China can potentially have at least as many MBR as Russia or the US by the end of the decade. But even if China reaches a maximum projected amount of 1500 warheads by 2035, it will still be only about a third of the current nuclear arsenals of Russia and the US, ”the report reads.
Analysts remind that Russia and the US together own about 90% of all nuclear weapons. The size of their relevant military reserves (that is, warheads suitable for use) seem to remain relatively stable in 2024, but both states introduce large -scale modernization programs that can increase the size and diversity of their arsenals in the future. It is likely that both in Russia and the USA deployment of nuclear weapons will grow in the coming years, suggesting the Institute for Peace Problems Research.
According to SIPRI, almost all nine states with nuclear weapons – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – continued intensive nuclear weapons modernization programs in 2024.
The report states that of the total number of warheads in the world, which was approximately 12 241 warheads as of January 2025, about 9614 were in military reserves for potential use. It is estimated that 3912 of these warheads were launched on rockets and aircraft and the rest at a centralized storage.