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Appendix 12A. World nuclear forces, 2007
Contents
SHANNON N. KILE, VITALY FEDCHENKO AND HANS M. KRISTENSEN
I. Introduction
II. US nuclear forces
III. Russian nuclear forces
IV. British nuclear forces
V. French nuclear forces
VI. Chinese nuclear forces
VII. Indian nuclear forces
VIII. Pakistani nuclear forces
IX. Israeli nuclear forces
X. North Korea’s military nuclear capabilities
Summary
At the beginning of 2007, the five nuclear weapon states recognized under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA—possessed a total of more than 26 000 nuclear warheads, including deployed weapons, spares and those in both active and inactive storage. All of these states, with the exception of the UK, had significant nuclear weapon modernization programmes under way. The UK announced its intention to replace its Trident submarine fleet with a new submarine-based nuclear deterrent beginning in the 2020s. India and Pakistan, which along with Israel are de facto nuclear weapon states outside the NPT, continued to develop new missile systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons. North Korea’s nuclear test explosion in October 2006 was widely believed to have been only a partial success and raised doubts about whether North Korea could manufacture operational nuclear weapons.
Shannon N. Kile (USA) is a Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Non-proliferation and Export Controls Project.
Vitaly Fedchenko (Russia) is a Researcher with the SIPRI Non-proliferation and Export Controls Project.
Hans M. Kristensen (Denmark) is Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), Washington, DC.
English