Nuclear Weapons Market Expected To Grow By 73% In 10 Years

In 2020, the nuclear bomb and missiles market was valued at $72.6 billion, but current projections estimate that it will reach a value of $126.3 billion within the next 10 years. This conjecture is formed given increased tensions between a large part of the world and Russia following their invasion of Ukraine. as well as China’s relations with their neighbors Hong Kong and Taiwan. China has been looming over and threatening their independence for years. Many nations feel threatened by the precarious positions other countries find themselves in and are bolstering their defenses after observing an increase in global conflict. Another reason is that investment in the weapons sector was put on pause during the rise of COVID-19, as many nations chose to allocate resources toward health and social welfare programs. Now that the effects of COVID-19 are not being felt quite as heavily, many governments are looking to allocate those funds to the original plans they had to grow their military capabilities.

In 2020, North America was the dominating region in terms of nuclear weapon market share, holding a majority of the shares in the market. However, the global nuclear missiles and bombs market across Asia-Pacific is expected to register the highest compound annual growth rate of 6.5% during this upcoming period, due to an increase in initiatives taken by the governments of India, Pakistan, and China. While the latter countries are expected to see a tremendous amount of growth in terms of missile and nuclear defense, United States President Joe Biden has also put out a spending proposal that is the highest the country has seen in peace times.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this would cost about $634 billion in total over the 10-year period. President Biden has also grown increasingly worried about Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. While he was president, Barack Obama once said that “the single biggest threat to U.S. security, both short term, medium-term and long term, would be the possibility of a terrorist organization obtaining a nuclear weapon.” This worry could become a reality, given that the Taliban terrorist organization gained control of Afghanistan in 2021. 

The bombs and missile market is not a free one, however, and many international treaties and agreements will prevent the market from reaching its full potential. Additionally, Britain, China, France, Russia, and the U.S. at the start of the year issued a joint statement saying there could be no winners in a nuclear war and it must be avoided, as it would be disastrous and fruitless for every party involved. While decreasing information problems and alerting other nations of your nuclear capabilities does prevent war, it escalates global anxiety. The growth of this market may be good news for these defense technology corporations, but it is bad news for the world overall as it increases the threat of nuclear conflict.

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