In a first India has deployed nuclear warheads according to data from Sipri, a Swedish think tank on conflict, armaments, and arms control. The report reveals India deployed 12 warheads, and China increased the number of deployed warheads to 34 in 2025. It claims this is the first time India’s arsenal has been classified as operationally deployed, rather than stockpiled.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on Monday made public its SIPRI Yearbook 2026 in which it said that countries were now “increasingly relying on nuclear weapons as instruments of national power”.
As per the report approximately 4,012 nuclear warheads remain deployed with missiles and aircraft across the world. approximately 4,012 nuclear warheads remain deployed with missiles and aircraft across the world.
Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,187 warheads in January 2026, about 9,745 were in military stockpiles for potential use,” said the report.
The 12 newly deployed warheads represent the first instance of India mating nuclear warheads with delivery systems or placing them at bases with operational forces, the report notes.
India was estimated to have a growing stockpile of about 190 nuclear weapons as of January 2026-a small increase from the previous year. These weapons were assigned to a maturing nuclear triad of aircraft, land-based missiles and SSBNs,” the SIPRI report released on Monday added.
The report further read that it has long been assumed that India stored its nuclear warheads separate from its deployed launchers during peacetime. However, the country’s recent moves towards placing missiles in canisters and conducting sea-based deterrence patrols suggest that India could be shifting in the direction of mating some of its warheads with their launchers in peacetime.
India follows no first use” policy when it comes to nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons will only be used in retaliation against a nuclear attack on Indian territory or on Indian forces anywhere