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Pakistan, China have more nuclear warheads than India: SIPRI

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Jun 15, 2020, 01:56 PM IST
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Picture for representative purpose. Photograph:(Zee News Network)

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The SIPRI report claims that India's IAF has assigned '48 nuclear bombs' to its aircraft and reportedly certified its Mirage 2000H fighter-bombers for delivery of nuclear gravity bombs

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute(SIPRI), China and Pakistan possess more nuclear warheads than India.

The think tank in a report said that India which conducted its first nuclear test in 1974 has 150 warheads and Pakistan which conducted its nuclear tests in 1998 has 160 warheads.

China which had conducted its tests a decade earlier than India has 320 warheads, the report informed.

The United States and Russia dominate the list with 5,800 and 6,375 warheads respectively which includes other warheads as well.

"At the start of 2020, nine states — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea - possessed approximately 13,400 nuclear weapons, of which 3,720 were deployed with operational forces," the report maintained.

India and Pakistan are also thought to be increasing the size of their arsenals, the report claimed while stressing that "China is in the middle of significant modernization and expansion of its nuclear arsenal".

"India is expanding the size of its nuclear weapon stockpile as well as its infrastructure for producing nuclear warheads," the report said.

"India is also increasing its uranium enrichment capabilities and continues to produce enriched uranium at the expanded gas centrifuge facility at the Rattehalli Rare Materials Plant near Mysore, Karnataka, for highly enriched uranium (HEU) for use as naval reactor fuel," the report claimed.

The SIPRI report claims that India's IAF has assigned "48 nuclear bombs" to its aircraft and reportedly certified its Mirage 2000H fighter-bombers for delivery of nuclear gravity bombs and "widely speculated that the IAF’s Jaguar IS fighter bombers may also have a nuclear delivery role."

In sea-based capability, the report estimates that 12 nuclear warheads have been delivered for potential deployment by the Arihant nuclear submaine with more in production.