US, Russia continue to modernize nuclear stockpiles
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says the United States and Russia press ahead with plans to upgrade their nuclear stockpiles despite international calls for disarmament.
“Both countries have extensive and expensive long-term modernization programs under way for their remaining nuclear delivery systems, warheads and production,” read the institute’s 2015 yearbook entitled, “Armaments, Disarmament and International Security,” issued on Monday.
The report said that Britain, France and China are also “either developing or deploying new nuclear weapon systems or have announced their intention to do so.”
SIPRI researcher Shannon Kile voiced concern over the nuclear stockpile modernizing policy of the world powers.
“Despite renewed international interest in prioritizing nuclear disarmament, the modernization programs underway in the nuclear weapon-possessing states suggests that none of them will give up their nuclear arsenals in the foreseeable future,” he warned.
SIPRI also reported that at the beginning of 2015, “approximately 15, 850 nuclear weapons” were in possession of nuclear states, “of which 4,300 were deployed with operational forces.”
The institute, however, confirmed that the recent figure shows a drastic drop in comparison with 2010 when there were nearly 22,600 warheads all over the world.
Ninety percent of the world’s nuclear weapons belong to Russia and the US with each country possessing 7,500 and 7,260 warheads, respectively.
FNR/HSN/AS
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