Humanity is once again raising the stakes in the nuclear arms race. In 2023, the world spent over $91.4 billion on nuclear weapons — that's over $250 million daily, $174,000 per minute, or almost $3,000 per second. These figures are taken from a new report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which considers these expenditures as an "unacceptable misallocation of public resources."
Nine countries possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. All of them increased their spending on nuclear weapons last year. Expenditures in 2023 rose by $10.7 billion compared to 2022. The U.S. leads this trend, with the country accounting for 80% of the growth. Last year, the U.S. spent more on nuclear weapons than all other countries combined — $51.5 billion. China followed with $11.8 billion, and then Russia with $8.3 billion. The United Kingdom and France spent $8.1 billion and $6.1 billion, respectively.
Nuclear weapons are not only financed by governments. 20 corporations collectively invested $30 billion in their development, production, and maintenance. In 2023, the industry received at least $7.9 billion in new nuclear contracts. The company Honeywell International made the highest profit from production, earning around $6.2 billion, followed by Northrop Grumman ($5.9 billion), BAE Systems ($3.3 billion), Lockheed Martin ($2.89 billion), and General Dynamics ($2.7 billion). At least five companies, including BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Peraton, have contracts extending until 2039.
The report does not mention expenses related to nuclear weapons work by specific government organizations, such as Bharat Dynamics Limited (India), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), or Rostec (Russia), which make significant contributions to nuclear developments but do not disclose their data.
Source: IFLScience
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