Nuclear Modernization
How all nine nuclear-armed states are upgrading their arsenals with new delivery systems, warheads, and technologies, and what this means for arms control.
A New Arms Race?
All nine nuclear-armed states are modernizing their nuclear arsenals. The United States has committed to a 30-year, $1.7 trillion program to replace or upgrade virtually every component of its nuclear triad: new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, and a new cruise missile. New warhead designs are in development at the national laboratories.
Russia is deploying new systems including the Sarmat heavy ICBM, the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drone, and the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile. President Putin has publicly touted these weapons as capable of defeating US missile defenses. China is engaged in the most significant nuclear expansion since the end of the Cold War, constructing hundreds of new missile silos in western China and developing new submarine-launched ballistic missiles. By the 2030s, China's arsenal may exceed 1,000 warheads, up from an estimated 350 in the early 2020s.