Global spending on nuclear weapons increased by 13% in 2023, according to the latest annual report by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons group, reaching $91.4 billion that year with a world-leading $51.5 billion spent in the U.S.
This 2023 total is $10.7 billion higher than the previous year, with all nine nuclear-armed states spending more, the anti-nuclear group’s report says. The U.S. accounted for 80% of the increase, and U.S. spending increased 18% from the previous year. China and Russia followed closely behind, according to the report.
The antis’ spending estimate for the U.S. combined funding for the Department of Defense programs including the B-21 bomber, the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, the Long Range Standoff weapon air-launched cruise missile and the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, plus the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) weapons activities budget.
However, the group’s tally for U.S. nuclear spending compared apples with oranges in places, including by lumping together DOD’s 2023 budget request for nuclear enterprise modernization of $34.4 billion with the final appropriation for NNSA’s weapons activities budget, which was $17.1 billion that year.
Altogether, and counting nuclear-armed nations including the rogue North Korea and the Jewish state of Israel, which has not officially acknowledged the nuclear weapons arsenal it is widely believed to possess, the antis charted a 34% increase in nuclear weapons spending worldwide over the five years ending in 2023, according to their report.
Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee last week sent a version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to the full Senate that would authorize $25 billion for the NNSA in fiscal year 2024, which begins Oct. 1.
Also last week, the House Appropriations Committee passed a defense appropriations bill that would provide $324 million less than what the Air Force requested for Sentinel.
