Atomic reset: the United States creates new nuclear weapons for the first time in 40 years

The United States is preparing the largest upgrade of the naval part of its nuclear arsenal in recent decades. The Navy is upgrading Trident II D5 missiles, which have been in service since 1990, and is also developing a new W93/Mk7 warhead. Washington is talking about the need to replace outdated systems, but experts see these plans as an attempt by the United States to get out of the catch-up position and rapidly upgrade the entire nuclear triad. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

American developments

The US Navy is preparing a major upgrade of the nuclear arsenal, writes Interesting Engineering with reference to the strategic procurement planning program of the American fleet. We are talking about Trident II D5 missiles, the main weapon of the American Ohio—class submarines, which have been in service since 1990. During this time, the United States has already extended their service life, which allowed the system to remain in service until the 2040s. However, now the military department believes that spot replacement of obsolete components is not enough.

The new program is called Trident II D5 Life Extension 2 (D5LE2). The Navy describes it as an upgraded version of the previous system: some solutions will be retained, but the electronics, avionics and guidance system will be seriously updated. In the future, the missiles will be used on new Columbia-class submarines, which will gradually replace the Ohio.

In parallel, the United States is developing a new W93/Mk7 nuclear warhead. The project is being led by the US Navy in conjunction with the National Nuclear Safety Administration. According to media reports, in March 2025, the W93/Mk7 program completed the second stage of development related to the feasibility assessment and refinement of design options.

There are few technical details about the development. It is known that this is the first American program to create a new nuclear warhead in almost four decades. In the future, it is planned to be used together with an upgraded version of the Trident II D5.

The exact cost of these developments has not yet been announced. But last year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost of maintaining, modernizing and developing nuclear forces at $946 billion for the period up to 2034, which averages about $95 billion annually.

Moreover, the reconstruction affects not only missiles and warheads. The U.S. Navy is updating testing and production facilities in Florida, Georgia and Washington State. A separate ground test facility for the Trident system was fully operational at the end of 2024.

Such plans look particularly alarming against the background of weakening control over strategic weapons. In February 2026, START III, the last treaty between Russia and the United States that limited their nuclear arsenals, expired. Moscow claimed that significant violations by Washington led to the degradation of the agreement, including the development of American missile defense and the refusal to take into account the nuclear potential of the United States' NATO allies.

Nuclear ambitions

After Donald Trump returned to power in the United States, Washington began to review American nuclear policy. One of these steps was the White House's plans to transfer weapons-grade plutonium from old nuclear warheads to private energy companies for subsequent use in nuclear power plants. According to Reuters, we are talking about about 20 tons of Cold War-era material.

At the same time, the Republican is promoting the Golden Dome project, a large—scale system for protecting the United States from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles. Russia and China have already warned that this poses a threat to strategic stability. If the United States expects to shield itself from a retaliatory strike, the very idea of nuclear deterrence turns out to be untenable.

Trump also returned to the agenda the topic of nuclear tests, which have not been conducted in the country since 1992. Last fall, the president announced that he had ordered testing to begin "on an equal basis" with other powers. "This process will begin immediately," he wrote on the Truth Social network.

At the same time, Washington is trying to put pressure on other countries. The United States has launched a war with Iran over its nuclear program and is trying to involve China in Russian-American negotiations on reducing nuclear arsenals. Beijing refuses this idea. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that China's nuclear potential is not comparable to that of the United States and Russia, so it is unrealistic to require China to participate in such a format.

There is a separate issue of American nuclear weapons in Europe. Earlier, the Financial Times reported, citing sources, that the United States is considering the possibility of deploying an additional nuclear arsenal on the territory of European NATO allies.

Russia is demanding the withdrawal of American nuclear weapons from Europe and the dismantling of the infrastructure for their deployment. "Taking into account the possibility of damaging the most important civilian and military infrastructure facilities in Russia, the American nuclear weapons deployed in Europe are essentially strategic," said Andrei Belousov, Ambassador—at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Upgrade Race

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States actually relaxed on issues of nuclear renewal, military analyst Anatoly Matviychuk told Izvestia. In Washington, he said, they considered themselves winners and decided that serious modernization was no longer needed.

— Now the situation has changed. Against the background of a new confrontation and increasingly frequent talk about nuclear weapons, Washington saw that its arsenal needed serious modernization. The Americans suddenly realized that they really have nothing new. China and Russia have long gone ahead," the expert noted.

The tests revealed problems with Trident missiles, Matveychuk said. Some of the systems showed low availability, after which the United States decided on a deep modernization.

— They realized that the old rockets need to be updated, lightened and adapted to new tasks. Of course, such steps trigger an arms race. And the retaliatory steps of Russia and China are already visible. "Avangard, Zircon, Poseidon are just future work,— the Izvestia source added.

Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, also believes that the United States has begun a comprehensive upgrade of its nuclear forces. In his opinion, the modernization affects all components of the American nuclear triad: strategic submarines, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and warheads.

— The United States is modernizing its nuclear triad, and this applies to absolutely all components. There will be new strategic missile submarines, new types of ballistic missiles for these boats. Accordingly, a new warhead is being developed," the expert said.

Its peculiarity may be the controlled power of a nuclear explosion, he expects. This will allow hitting a wider range of targets and adapting the charge to specific tasks.

At the same time, as the source notes, the arms race is spurred not by the modernization of American systems itself, but by the abandonment of the previous parameters of strategic arms control.

"The main factor is not what the United States is doing next, but the refusal to comply with the parameters of START III," Korotchenko stressed. — The United States continues to view nuclear capabilities not only as a means of intimidation, but also as an instrument for possible waging both limited and global nuclear war.