At the start of 2016 nine states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea—possessed approximately 4,120 operationally deployed nuclear weapons. If all nuclear warheads are counted, these states together possessed a total of approximately 15,395 nuclear weapons compared with 15,850 in early 2015 (see table 1).

 

Table 1. World nuclear forces, 2016

Country	Year of first nuclear test	Deployed warheads*	Other warheads	Total 2016
USA	1945	1,930	5,070	7,000
Russia	1949	1,790	5,500	7,290
UK	1952	120	95	215
France	1960	280	20	300
China	1964		260	260
India	1974		100–120	100–120
Pakistan	1998		110–130	110–130
Israel			80	80
North Korea	2006		10	10
Total		4,120	11,275	15,395

* ‘Deployed’ means warheads placed on missiles or located on bases with operational forces.

All estimates are approximate and are as of January 2016. Totals do not include figures for North Korea. Source: SIPRI Yearbook 2016 …

At the same time, both Russia and the USA have extensive and expensive nuclear modernization programmes under way. The USA, for example, plans to spend $348 billion during 2015–24 on maintaining and comprehensively updating its nuclear forces. Some estimates suggest that the USA’s nuclear weapon modernization programme may cost up to $1 trillion over the next 30 years.

“The ambitious US modernization plan presented by the Obama Administration is in stark contrast to President Barack Obama’s pledge to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and the role they play in US national security strategy,” said Hans Kristensen*, co-author to the SIPRI Yearbook.

Global nuclear weapons: downsizing but modernizing
https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2016/global-nuclear-weapons-downsizing-modernizing