US Races to Modernize Aging Nuclear Arsenal by 2030

The United States is facing a countdown to modernize its aging nuclear arsenal in a scenario that has sparked concern just as dangerous world powers are racing to catch up at a time the U.S. could be at its weakest point, Newsweek reported Friday.

"Really big decisions that we should have made yesterday" threaten to leave the U.S. in a precarious position by 2030, experts told Newsweek.

"The next five years — maybe less than that — will be really determinative," Heather Williams, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank, told Newsweek.

The end of the Cold War put modernization on the back burner, putting a host of nuclear assets in a position of aging out at the same time, threatening the U.S. to be in its weakest position by 2030. Meanwhile, China is rapidly developing nukes, Russia is "unpredictable," and North Korea and Iran are unknowns in the nuke race.

"If we really want to be serious about building a nuclear arsenal for the 21st century, and competing with our adversaries, there are really big decisions that we should have made yesterday and that we didn't," Williams told Newsweek.

"We just keep kicking the can down the road about whether or not we need these things. The time has come, we really just have to make some of those choices."

One example is the Minuteman III ground-based missile, which the U.S. military is planning to swap out with Sentinels over the next 10 years. However, failed tests on the Minuteman III are happening now, according to the report.

"The U.S. government will do whatever it takes to keep those things in a ready state or reliable state until Sentinel comes online," Robert Soofer, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy from 2017-21, told Newsweek. "There are things that we can do in extremis to keep the systems in service longer."

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