Global nuclear weapons spending

The U.S. has deployed about 150 nuclear shells at air bases in Europe without any official statements.

This was reported by Alicia Sanders-Sacre, policy and research coordinator of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), at a briefing by the Association of Correspondents to the United Nations (ACANU).

Sanders-Zacre said U.S. nuclear weapons are secretly at air bases in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey and Italy.

“Independent experts estimate that there are about 150 warheads at U.S. air bases in these countries,” she said.

In its report "Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending" the ICAN shows: in 2022 nine nuclear-armed states spent $82.9 billion on their nuclear weapons, more than $157,000 per minute, an overall increase of $2.5 billion from 2021.

This is the fourth annual report documenting massive investments in global nuclear weapons spending. Through an ever-changing and challenging security environment, from security threats of climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic to the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, nuclear weapons spending has steadily increased, with no resulting measurable improvement on the security environment. If anything, the situation is getting worse.

As companies throw money at lobbyists and researchers to assert the continued relevance and value of nuclear weapons, the record shows the inutility of weapons of mass destruction to address modern security challenges — and the legitimate fear, backed by peer-reviewed scientific evidence, that they can end global civilization as we know it.

In 2022, nuclear-armed states spent five thousand more dollars per minute on their nuclear arsenals than in 2021, a total of $157,664 per minute on nuclear weapons.

In 2022, nuclear-armed states spent five thousand more dollars per minute on their nuclear arsenals than the year before, a total of $157,664 per minute on nuclear weapons.

Nine countries spent $82.9 billion in 2022 on nuclear weapons, of which the private sector earned at least $29 billion.

The United States spent more than all of the other nuclear-armed states combined, at $43.7 billion. Russia spent 22% of what the US did, at $9.6 billion, and China spent just over a quarter of the U.S. total, at $11.7 billion.

There are at least $278.6 billion in outstanding nuclear weapons contracts, some of which don’t expire for decades. In 2022, at least $15.9 billion in new nuclear weapon contracts were awarded.

The companies that received them turned around and invested in lobbying governments, spending $113 million on those efforts in the US and France. Together, nuclear weapon producing companies, nuclear-armed governments and those in nuclear alliances spent $21-36 million funding the ten of the most prominent think tanks researching and writing about nuclear weapons in nuclear-armed states.

In June 2022, more than sixty states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons gathered in Vienna. In an incredibly inclusive meeting, they engaged with those impacted by decades of nuclear weapons production and development, youth destined to inherit the last generation’s contaminating nuclear legacy, and financiers who know there is power and profit to be found by avoiding the nuclear industry. This meeting adopted the most comprehensive and coordinated action plan on nuclear disarmament in the past decade, and they are well on their way to implementing its agreements.

The nine nuclear-armed states may have wasted $157,644 a minute on nuclear weapons in 2022, but no matter how much they spend, their nuclear weapons remain tools of terror and intimidation propped up by a mythical tale of deterrence that is rapidly unravelling.

Now you see which country spends most of all on nuclear weapons thus provoking further arms race…

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