Pakistan is estimated to have around 170 nuclear warheads, a figure consistent across multiple sources as of late 2024/early 2025, with analysts noting it continues to develop its arsenal, focusing on tactical weapons as a deterrent against India's larger conventional forces.
Russia and the United States together possess nearly 90% of the world's nuclear weapons, with Russia holding the largest total stockpile and the U.S. having a substantial number of deployed strategic warheads, making them the dominant nuclear powers by far, despite other nations like China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea also having nuclear arsenals.
Nuclear weapons are still here—and they're still an existential risk. Nine countries possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. In total, the global nuclear stockpile is close to 13,000 weapons.
India currently has two SSBNs in service, with two more under construction. Pakistan, by contrast, does not possess long-range missiles or nuclear submarines. Its longest-range operational ballistic missile, the Shaheen-III, has a range of 2,750km.
Under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China are recognized "nuclear-weapons states" (NWS). They are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
Australia does not currently have nuclear weapons and has never had its own nuclear weapons, although several federal governments have investigated the idea and conducted research into the question.
India has never publicly released the size of its nuclear arsenal. One assessment places the country's stockpile at 160 nuclear warheads. However, New Delhi has enough weapons-grade plutonium, approximately 700 kilograms, for up to 213 warheads.
India has more nuclear weapons than Pakistan, but Beijing's strategic arsenal is bigger than New Delhi's, said the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in a new yearbook released on Monday.
In 1951, China signed a secret agreement with Moscow through which China provided uranium ores in exchange for Soviet assistance in nuclear technology. China began developing nuclear weapons in the late 1950s with substantial Soviet assistance.
Who has the most nuclear weapons? Russia has the most confirmed nuclear weapons, with over 5,500 nuclear warheads. The United States follows behind with 5,044 nuclear weapons, hosted in the US and 5 other nations: Turkey, Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
The French justified their decision to provide Israel a nuclear reactor by claiming it was not without precedent. In September 1955 Canada publicly announced that it would help the Indian government build a heavy-water research reactor, the CIRUS reactor, for "peaceful purposes".
The Tsar Bomba (code name: Ivan or Vanya, internal designation "AN602") was the most powerful nuclear weapon or weapon of any kind ever constructed and tested. A project of the Soviet Union, it was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, tested on 30 October 1961 at the Novaya Zemlya site in the country's far north.
Russia leads with the world's longest-reaching missile at 18,000 km, followed by China, the USA, and the UK.
The world's nuclear-armed states possess a combined total of about 12,100 nuclear warheads as of March 2024. Nuclear-Weapon States: The nuclear-weapon states (NWS) are the five states—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—officially recognized as possessing nuclear weapons by the NPT.
Hall, director of the University of Tennessee's Institute for Nuclear Security, called the hydrogen bomb a “city killer” that would probably annihilate between 100 and 1,000 times more people than an atomic bomb. “It will basically wipe out any of modern cities,” Hall said.
Nine countries are thought to have nuclear weapons today, but over 80% of warheads are held by just two: Russia and the United States.
Islamabad's nuclear weapons are likely stored in a disassembled state during peacetime. Pakistan currently appears to deploy six nuclear-capable land-based ballistic missiles that encompass short-range (<1000 km) and medium-range (1000-3000 km) systems.
Top 10 Most Powerful Weapons of The Australian Military
The UK is the only nuclear weapon state that has reduced to a single deterrent system. The decision to join the NATO nuclear mission is intended to “complement” the UK's independent submarine-based strategic nuclear deterrent and does not involve the procurement of a sovereign air-launched capability.
Forty-eight per cent of AusNet is publicly listed on the ASX, 32 per cent is owned by Singapore Power which is controlled by Singapore government investment fund Temasek and the remaining 20 per cent is owned by State Grid of China.
The United States tops the list with 97 GW across 94 reactors. France ranks second at 63 GW, a result of its historic policy to standardize and scale nuclear after the 1970s oil shocks. China follows at 55 GW. Russia (27 GW) and South Korea (26 GW) round out the top five.
The United States Navy currently operates the biggest fleet of ballistic missile subs, consisting of 14 18,800- ton Ohio class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).
The current ICBM force consists of 400 Minuteman III missiles located at the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming; the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana; and the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Contractor: Boeing Co.