Israel has up to 90 nuclear weapons: SIPRI Report
According to the SIPRI report, Israel was also among nine states in possession of nuclear weapons at the start of 2020. Although Israel has a long-standing policy of not commenting on its nuclear arsenal and has neither officially confirmed nor denied its existence, the report estimated that the country could be in the possession of 90 operational nuclear weapons.
About 30 of these weapons are believed to be gravity bombs for delivery by F-16I aircraft, and up to 50 warheads are thought to be for delivery by land-based Jericho ballistic missiles. SIPRI noted that the Israeli government has never publicly confirmed its possession of the Jericho missiles, reported by The Algemeiner.
The other nuclear-armed states listed were the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea, who together with Israel have an estimated 13400 nuclear weapons, of which 3720 were deployed with operational forces.
“Overall, inventories of nuclear warheads continue to decline. This is primarily due to the USA and Russia dismantling retired warheads. At the same time, both the USA and Russia have extensive and expensive programs under way to replace and modernize their nuclear warheads, missile and aircraft delivery systems, and nuclear weapon production facilities,” SIPRI stated.
The report referred to declassified government documents from Israel and the US that indicated that Israel began building nuclear weapons in the early 1960s, using plutonium produced by the Israel Research Reactor 2 (IRR-2) at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, near Dimona.
Founded in 1966, SIPRI describes itself as an independent international institute focused on research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
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