KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 5): The weapons revenue of the world’s largest weapons-producing and military services companies last year dropped 3.5% year-on-year to US$597 billion (RM2.79 trillion), according to  the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its 2023 Yearbook.

The think tank in its review of top 100 of such firms on Dec 3 said the revenues of the 42 US companies on the list — accounting for 51% of total arms sales — fell by 7.9% to US$302 billion in 2022.

Of those, it said 32 recorded a fall in year-on-year arms revenue, most of them citing ongoing supply chain issues and labor shortages stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, companies in Asia and the Middle East saw their arms revenues grow significantly in 2022, the institute said in its assessment, saying it demonstrated “their ability to respond to increased demand within a shorter time frame.”

SIPRI highlighted Israel and South Korea in this aspect.

It said that countries placed new orders late in the year and the time lag between orders and production meant that the surge in demand was not reflected in these companies’ 2022 revenues.

Nuclear arsenal

United States

SIPRI said that as of January 2023 the US maintained a military stockpile of approximately 3,708 nuclear warheads, the same number as the previous year.

Approximately 1,770 of these — consisting of about 1,670 strategic and roughly 100 non-strategic (tactical) warheads — were deployed on ballistic missiles and at bomber bases. In addition, about 1,938 warheads were held in reserve and around 1,536 retired warheads were awaiting dismantlement (184 fewer than the previous year’s estimate), giving a total inventory of approximately 5,244 nuclear warheads.

SIPRI said the US stockpile is expected to continue to decline slightly over the next decade as nuclear modernization programmes consolidate some nuclear weapon types.

Although the US Department of Energy indicated in early 2022 that the US was currently ‘on pace to completely dismantle the weapons that were retired at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2008 by the end of FY 2022, that schedule appears to have slipped.

Russia

As of January 2023 the Russian Federation maintained a military stockpile of approximately 4,489 nuclear warheads, a slight increase of around 12 warheads compared with the estimate for January 2022.

About 2,673 of these were strategic warheads, of which roughly 1,674 were deployed on land- and sea-based ballistic missiles and at bomber bases. Russia also possessed approximately 1,816 non-strategic (tactical) nuclear warheads.

All of the non-strategic warheads are assessed to be at central storage sites. An additional 1,400 retired warheads were awaiting dismantlement (100 fewer than the previous year’s estimate), giving a total estimated inventory of approximately 5,889 war heads.

China

As of January 2023 China maintained an estimated total stockpile of about 410 nuclear warheads—around 60 more than SIPRI’s estimate for the pre-vious year. China’s warheads are assigned to its operational land- and sea-based ballistic missiles and to nuclear-configured aircraft.

Although the Chinese nuclear stockpile is projected to continue growing over the coming decade and the number of Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) is likely to reach or even exceed the numbers held by either Russia or the US, China’s overall nuclear warhead stockpile is still expected to remain smaller than that of either of those states.

India

As of January 2023 India was estimated to have a growing stockpile of about 164 nuclear weapons — a small increase from the previous year.

These weapons were assigned to a maturing nuclear triad of aircraft, land- based missiles and nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs).

The warhead estimate is based on calculations of India’s inventory of weapon-grade plutonium, the estimated number of operational nuclear-capable delivery systems, India’s nuclear doctrine, publicly available information on the Indian nuclear arsenal, and private conversations with defence officials.

SIPRI said the Indian government has provided little public infor mation about the size of its nuclear forces, other than conducting occasional parade displays and announcing missile flight tests.