Global nuclear arms spending up 11% in 2024, campaign group says – Check full details of which country spent what

The $10 billion annual increase to $100.2 billion went towards modernising and in some cases expanding nuclear arsenals, according to ICAN, a global civil society coalition that seeks the total elimination of atomic weapons.

“Nuclear-armed countries could have paid the United Nations’ budget 28 times with what they spent to build and maintain nuclear weapons in 2024,” the report said.

Total expenditure by global nuclear arms

The US recorded the largest annual increase in nuclear spending in 2024, rising by $5.3 billion, the report said. Its total expenditure of $56.8 billion exceeded the combined spending of all other nuclear-armed states, it said.

China spent $12.5 billion, followed by Britain at $10.4 billion, which was an increase of $2.2 billion, ICAN said.

It said the other nuclear-armed states were France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Russia.

“In terms of kind of the increase in spending in the UK and France, I think we certainly have seen, at least in the rhetoric of political leaders, a reference to the ongoing war in Ukraine, to the tensions, and that could be playing a role,” Alicia Sanders-Zakre, a policy and research coordinator at ICAN, told reporters at a briefing in Geneva.

Britain and other allies in NATO now regard Russia as the main security threat to Europe and some have rolled out plans to devote a higher percentage of GDP to defence spending.

However, Sanders-Zakre said the increase in nuclear expenditure has been more driven by the costs of servicing long-term contracts and the growing expense of developing nuclear delivery systems than by current security concerns.

Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear sites

Israel launched a blistering attack on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure Friday, deploying warplanes and drones smuggled into the country to target key facilities and kill top generals and scientists – a barrage it said was necessary before its adversary got any closer to building an atomic weapon.

According to a report published by AP, the operation raised the potential for all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.

Iran quickly retaliated, sending a swarm of drones at Israel as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of “severe punishment”.

Iran had been censured by the UN’s atomic watchdog a day earlier for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.