Report: Israel Upgrading its Nuclear Arsenal

Photo Credit: Moshe Shai / Flash 90

Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona.

Israel was listed with nine other nations who are continuing to upgrade their nuclear arsenals in a report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The SIPRI Yearbook’s annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security reports the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel “continued to modernize their nuclear arsenals.”

Israel — which does not publicly acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons — is believed to be modernizing its nuclear arsenal and appears to be upgrading its plutonium production reactor site at Dimona, SIPRI reported.

According to the report, as of 2024 Israel had 90 nuclear warheads in its military stockpile – the same number it had in 2023.

India, Pakistan and North Korea are all pursuing the capability to deploy multiple warheads on ballistic missiles, something Russia, France, the UK, the USA and — more recently — China already have.

Iran was not included in the report, even though it has been obvious about its ongoing nuclear development and ballistic missile program. Ballistic missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and Iran has not been shy about its intentions to annihilate the Jewish State.

The United States and Russia together possess nearly 90 percent of all nuclear weapons, according to the report. In addition to their military stockpiles, the two nations each hold more than 1,200 warheads previously retired from military service which SIPRI says they are gradually dismantling.

“While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as cold war-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,” said SIPRI Director Dan Smith.

“We are now in one of the most dangerous periods in human history,” Smith added. “There are numerous sources of instability – political rivalries, economic equalities, ecological disruption, an accelerating arms race. The abyss is beckoning, and it is time for the great powers to step back and reflect. Preferably together.”

Israel does not participate in the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction, nor is the Jewish State a member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). India, North Korea, Pakistan and South Sudan also have declined membership in the treaty.

“We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the cold war,” said Wilfred Wan, Director of SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program. “It is hard to believe that barely two years have passed since the leaders of the five largest nuclear-armed states jointly reaffirmed that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’.”