India believed to have 'slightly expanded' nuclear arsenal in 2024: Report

Business Standard

17-06-2025

Nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states, including India and Pakistan, continued intensive nuclear modernisation programmes in 2024, upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions, according to a report by a global think-tank.
India is believed to have once again "slightly expanded" its nuclear arsenal in 2024 and continued to develop new types of nuclear delivery systems, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a statement.
Pakistan also continued to develop new delivery systems and "accumulate fissile material" in 2024, suggesting that its nuclear arsenal might expand over the coming decade, it said.
The think-tank on Monday launched its annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security in SIPRI Yearbook 2025.
The statement on the release of its yearbook also makes a reference to the recent military conflict between India and Pakistan.
The four-day military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in May brought the two countries to the brink of full-scale war.
The SIPRI Yearbook provided a country-wise assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security.
"Nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states -- the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel --continued intensive nuclear modernisation programmes in 2024, upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions," the statement said.
Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,241 warheads in January 2025, about 9,614 were in "military stockpiles for potential use", it claimed.
"India is believed to have once again slightly expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2024 and continued to develop new types of nuclear delivery system," it said.
"India's new 'canisterised' missiles, which can be transported with mated warheads, may be capable of carrying nuclear warheads during peacetime, and possibly even multiple warheads on each missile, once they become operational," the think-tank claimed.
In early 2025 tensions between India and Pakistan briefly spilled over into armed conflict, it said.
The combination of strikes and third-party disinformation "risked turning a conventional conflict into a nuclear crisis," Matt Korda, Associate Senior Researcher with SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme and Associate Director for the Nuclear Information Project at FAS (Federation of American Scientists), was quoted as saying in the statement.
"This should act as a stark warning for states seeking to increase their reliance on nuclear weapons," he said.
The think-tank further said since the end of the Cold War, the gradual dismantlement of retired warheads by Russia and the USA has normally outstripped the deployment of new warheads, resulting in an overall year-on-year decrease in the global inventory of nuclear weapons.
"This trend is likely to be reversed in the coming years, as the pace of dismantlement is slowing, while the deployment of new nuclear weapons is accelerating," it cautioned.
Key findings of SIPRI Yearbook 2025 are that a "dangerous new nuclear arms race" is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are "severely weakened," it claimed.
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