Fewer but newer nuclear weapons in world arsenals

There are fewer nuclear weapons today but it’s far from clear if the world is a safer place.

Over the past year, the total number of warheads has declined but countries are modernising their arms, a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says.

Russia, the US, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea held about 13,865 nuclear weapons at the start of 2019.

Compared with early 2018, the figure represents a drop of 600 nukes.

But defence and security expert Sam Roggeveen told nine.com.au it was unclear if the world is safer.

He noted that India, Pakistan and China are expanding their nuclear arsenals.

“China is on the cusp of having a permanent sea-borne nuclear deterrence. This would be in the form of ballistic missile submarines, like the US, Russia, France and Great Britain already have.”

Dr Roggeveen also said India was moving towards a powerful ‘nuclear triad’ – the three-pronged military structure of land-based nuclear warheads, submarines carrying nuclear missiles and aircraft armed with nuclear missiles and bombs.

“There are early indications Pakistan may also do that,” he said.

The reduction in nuclear weapons is largely due to the US and Russia carrying out their obligations under the new START treaty.

Both superpowers in 2010 signed the accord, which puts a cap on the number of deployed warheads and stipulates they must take obsolete weapons out of service.

But the START treaty expires in 2021 and it’s unclear if it will be extended.

The number of nuclear weapons was highest in the mid-1980s when there were 70,000 warheads around the world.