Summary of this article
India has deployed 12 nuclear warheads for the first time, according to the latest annual assessment by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), suggesting a possible shift in the country's long-standing practice of keeping warheads and delivery systems separate during peacetime.
The SIPRI Yearbook 2026, released on Monday, estimates that India possessed about 190 nuclear warheads as of January 2026, compared with 180 a year earlier. Of these, 12 were classified as deployed, while 178 remained in storage.
