In June 2025, Solna (Sweden) based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest Yearbook for 2025: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security. The report highlighted that India continues to maintain an edge over Pakistan in nuclear capabilities.
- As per the report, India has expanded its nuclear arsenal from 172 warheads (in 2024) to an estimated 180 (in 2025), as of January 2025.
About SIPRI Yearbook:
i.The 1st edition of the SIPRI Yearbook was published in 1969. It provides comprehensive overview of developments in international security, weapons and technology, military expenditure, arms production and the arms trade, along with efforts to control conventional, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
ii.Since 1986, the SIPRI Yearbook has been published by Oxford University Press (OUP).
India-Specific:
i.The report further underscored that India’s new ‘canisterised’ missiles, which allows warheads to be pre-mounted and transported more safely, could potentially carry nuclear warheads even during ‘peacetime’.
- Also, these next-generation systems will be able to deliver various warheads using a single missile in the near future.
ii.The report outlined Agni Prime (Agni-P) missile and the Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV)-capable Agni-5 system, are the among the newest of India’s next-generation delivery platforms.
Global Scenario:
i.As per SIPRI’s latest report, Pakistan has an estimated 170 nuclear warheads (as of January 2025).
ii.The report noted that while India and Pakistan continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals, China continued to add nuclear warheads at a much faster rate.
- The report estimated that since 2023, China has been adding nearly 100 new nuclear warheads annually.
- As of January 2025, China had completed or was nearing completion of around 350 new Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) silos spread across remote areas of the country.
iii.SIPRI highlighted that all 9 nuclear-armed countries, namely the United States of America (USA), Russia, the United Kingdom (UK), France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel, continued to invest significantly in modernizing their nuclear forces in 2024.
- Among these 9 nuclear states, Russia and the USA have the largest military stockpile of nuclear forces at 5,459 and 5,177, respectively, including retired warheads.
iv.As of January 2025, the report estimated that all 9 nuclear states together possessed nearly 12,241 nuclear weapons, of which about 9,614 were in military stockpiles for potential use.
- Nearly 3,912 of these warheads were deployed with operational forces, including around 2,100 that were stored in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles.
- Cumulatively, Russia and the USA together possess around 90% of these nuclear warheads.
v.The report revealed that the arms revenues of the 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies reached USD 632 billion in 2023. This was 2.8% higher than the total revenue of the top 100 in 2022.
- The USA has again dominated the list of top 100 arms-producing companies, with 41 companies listed with total revenues of USD 317 billion.
vi.As per the report, 162 states were recipients of major nuclear arms in 2020-24 and 5 largest arms recipients were Ukraine, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, cumulatively accounted for 35% of total arms imports.
vii.SIPRI has identified 64 states as major suppliers of nuclear arms in 2020-24. The 25 largest suppliers represented 98% of the total volume of exports.
- It further revealed that top 5 countries: the USA, France, Russia, China and Germany, together accounted for 71% of total arms exports.
About Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI):
Director – Dan Smith
Headquarters – Solna, Sweden
Established – 1966
