8. Israel
Number of warheads: Unknown, suspected between 60 and 400
Delivery method: suspected nuclear triad
The most controversial – and the most secretive – nuclear weapons program on our list is Israel’s. It is easy to see a logic behind Israel’s decision to pursue nuclear weapons. For a small country completely surrounded by enemies hell-bent on not only defeating it, but erasing it from the face of the planet, nukes hold much sway. While Israel, the number 8 in our list of countries with nukes, keeps to its policy of neither confirming nor denying its possession of nuclear weapons, it is a public secret that they have them ever since the late 1970s. Apart from aircraft bombs and Jericho missiles, Israel is suspected to have fitted its new Dolphin class submarines with Popeye Turbo cruise missiles, completing the nuclear tried and ensuring the second strike capability and retaliation against its enemies. The so-called Samson option – again, neither confirmed nor denied by the Tel Aviv – is since then something Israel’s enemies must take into account. It envisions using nuclear weapons as a last stand option, in case Israel Defense Force is destroyed and much of the country overrun, securing that whoever managed to do that will suffer the same fate as Israel. For better or worse, there’s hardly a force capable of defeating IDF in conventional warfare in the region, so the world is safe from Israel’s nukes…for now.
