Prepping for “a splendid little nuclear war?” Great Britain now leads the world in the increase year on year of its expenditures on nuclear weapons, says the International Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), in a just published report. While global spending on nukes increased by 11%, alarming enough in itself, Great Britain saw an increase in expenditures of 26%, rising to $10.4 billion during 2024. China’s total nuclear weapons expenditure was $12.5 billion, and, while larger than Britain’s, exceeds it by only 25%.
Last year, the United States spent $56.8 billion, about four and a half times China’s nuclear payout, and more than half that of the whole world, estimated at just over $100 billion. Looking more closely at this gives another dimension to what the British mean by their “special relationship” to the United States, especially when it comes to the deployment and potential use of nuclear weapons.
