India accounts for 1% of world's nuclear warheads, shows SIPRI data

Russia, US hold 90% of total nukes. At 156, India has fewer than Pakistan's 165

In 1994, Ukraine signed a tripartite agreement with Russia and the United States to give up its nuclear warheads for economic compensation and security assurances. The country transferred its last nuclear warhead to Russia in 1996 and dismantled its strategic nuclear delivery vehicle in 2001.

In 1998, Pakistan became the eighth country to possess a nuclear warhead, and eight years later, North Korea became the ninth.

India had conducted its first nuclear test a few decades ago, in 1974, whereas China had completed its first test 10 years earlier, in 1964.

As of January 2021, over 13,080 nuclear warheads were held by nine countries. And just two of them — Russia and the US — accounted for 90 per cent of the world’s total warheads.

Only four — the US, Russia, United Kingdom and France — have deployed warheads. A deployed warhead is sited at missile bases, bomber bases or on submarines as opposed to the ones that are stored.

An analysis of data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that India accounts for just over one per cent of the world’s total warheads. At 156, India's number is lower than neighbouring Pakistan’s 165 (see chart 1).

Further analysis shows a distinction between Europe and the Americas vis-a-vis Asian countries possessing a warhead.

While the trend in Europe and the US is to possess more sea-based warheads, countries in the Asian region have a higher number of land-based nuclear weapons.

For instance, 50 per cent of India’s warheads are land-based, while only 13 per cent are sea-based. Similarly, for China, 75 per cent of warheads are land-based, while 18 per cent are sea-based. Pakistan does not have a single sea-based warhead. In contrast, the entire nuclear strength of the United Kingdom is sea-based, while 54 per cent of the US nuclear warheads are sea-based.

Russia, meanwhile, has 32 per cent of sea-based warheads against 46 per cent land-based ones (see chart 2).

While India's warheads, according to SIPRI data, have a low yield, maxing out at 40 kilotonnes, China has a maximum yield of 5 megatonnes.

In terms of range, too, India's capacity is limited. India’s warheads have a maximum range of over 5,000 km, whereas Chinese warheads top at over 12,000 km. US’s long-range missiles have a 13,000-km range.

A missile over the range of 5,500 km is called an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). All of the US's 800 land-based and 1,920 sea-based missiles are ICBMs. Russia’s land-based and sea-based systems have ICBM capabilities as well. In contrast, 144 of the 204 land-based missiles in China are ICBMs, whereas all its sea-based nuclear missiles are ICBMs.

India only just tested its first nuclear-capable ICBM, Agni-V, last year.