The map makes for concerning reading – click to enlarge (Picture: Metro Graphics)
Russian president Vladimir Putin has issued yet another nuclear threat to the West: Russia will consider using nuclear weapons if attacked by any other country.
For months Ukraine has been hoping to launch strikes into Russian territory using Western missiles in an attempt to turn the tide in their ongoing war.
The UK and US have not allowed Ukraine to carry out these missile strikes using weaponry they have provided – and Putin has given the West another reason to be cautious.
Putin said any nuclear power supporting another country’s attack on Russia would be considered a participant in the aggression – a thinly veiled threat to Western countries considering whether to allow Ukraine to use their long-range weapons.
Russia has the largest nuclear stockpile in the world, with 5,580 warheads, making the threat even more chilling.
But which countries have nuclear weapons, and how many? Metro.co.uk has the answers.
North Korea
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends an inspection test of a new surface-to-sea missile earlier this month (Picture: via REUTERS)
Number of estimated warheads: 50
There are nine countries on earth which have formally declared they possess nuclear armament.
It’s thought North Korea has 50 warheads but the material to make double that if desired.
Israel
Number of estimated warheads: 90
It’s thought that Israel is capable of delivering nuclear bombs by air, as cruise missiles fired from submarines and through the Jericho line of ballistic missiles (that have intermediate to intercontinental range).
Israel has been in possession of nuclear weapons since the 1960s, but it has never formally acknowledged the existence of its nuclear programme, adhering to a policy of nuclear secrecy.
As such, the true scale of its nuclear programme is largely unknown.
India
India is believed to have 165 nukes (Picture: Getty Images)
Number of estimated warheads: 172
With their stockpile of nuclear weaponry at its largest ever, India’s programmes isn’t designed to help them fight nations from the other side of the world, like many other countries on this list.
They have amassed nukes as a means to defend themselves during conflicts with neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and China.
Pakistan
Number of estimated warheads: 170
With a similar nuclear capacity as its neighbour and rival India, Pakistan sees nuclear weapons as essential to maintaining national security, mainly to offset India’s military might.
Following the war with India in 1971, Pakistan made great strides towards producing uranium enrichment and plutonium for use in weapons.
This marked the beginning of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons history.
United Kingdom
Number of estimated warheads: 225
The UK has the fifth highest number of nuclear warheads of all 195 nations on earth – although, as we’ve said, only nine are formally declared to have any at all.
HM Naval Base Clyde in western Scotland is home to the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent, while the submarines they would be fired from are based at Faslane.
France
France has the fourth-largest declared stockpile of nuclear weapons (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Number of estimated warheads: 290
The planet’s fourth-biggest stockpiler of weapons of mass destruction is France.
Despite being a friendly nation involved in very few disputes or potential wars, the French have 290 nuclear warheads – all of which are deployed and ready to be fired.
France have, however, scaled back their nuclear arsenal by 50% since the end of the Cold War.
China
Number of estimated warheads: 500
It will comes as no shock to anyone to discover the identity of the top three in this list. That said, the order of ranking and specific numbers might surprise some.
In third, with 500 warheads is the People’s Republic of China. The Pentagon have said they expect this number to rise to 1,000 warheads by 2030.
USA
Number of estimated warheads: 5,044
Ahead of China, by some margin, is the United States. With around 5,044 nukes, they’re not far off top spot here in this grim countdown.
That may sound like a lot of nuclear warheads, but at its peak back in 1967, the US had over 32,000 warheads in its extensive arsenal.
It currently has just shy of 2,000 deployed and able to be fired in the event of war.
Russia
Putin’s nation has the largest declared number of warheads (Picture: Kremlin/east2west news)
Number of estimated warheads: 5,580
The country to have built and stockpiled the largest number of nukes is, unsurprisingly, Russia.
Historically, Russia has always looked to nuclear arms as its final threat and sought to keep an arsenal comparable – or superior – to that of the United States.
More than 1,600 of the 5,580 that the have are deployed and ready to be fired if called upon.
Iran
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei has threatened to attack Israel with weapons ‘never seen before’ (Picture: Anadolu Agency)
Number of estimated warheads: Unknown
Iran is transparent about having a nuclear programme but insists that it has developed no warheads and has no plans to.
But ever since the US pulled out of a landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump, Iran has been ramping up production of fissile material in recent years.
Today, it would likely be able to produce a bomb’s worth of the necessary enriched uranium in less than a week.
It is now believed Tehran has accumulated enough enriched uranium to construct several nuclear bombs, but would struggle to launch them due to a lack of ICBM’s and would be forced to drop them from a plane in a manner similar to the Hiroshima bombing in 1945.
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