Pakistan has 170 nuclear warheads, may increase it to 200 by 2025: Nuclear Notebook

Last Updated on September 15, 2023 11:05 am

Pakistan has a stockpile of approximately 170 nuclear warheads which could realistically grow to around 200 by 2025 at the current growth rate, according to top American atomic scientists.

“We estimate that Pakistan now has a nuclear weapons stockpile of approximately 170 warheads. The US Defense Intelligence Agency projected in 1999 that Pakistan would have 60 to 80 warheads by 2020, but several new weapon systems have been fielded and developed since then, which leads us to a higher estimate,” the Nuclear Notebook column published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on September 11 said.

The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by the staff of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information’s Project Director Hans M Kristensen, senior research fellow Matt Korda, and research associate Eliana Johns.

The Nuclear Notebook column has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1987.

“Our estimate comes with considerable uncertainty because neither Pakistan nor other countries publish much information about the Pakistani nuclear arsenal,” the scientists said.