The American deterrent is aging and some warheads are in need of replacement, Chris Wright has said
The administration of President Donald Trump will modernize the aging US nuclear weapons arsenal without increasing its size, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Wright described the US nuclear stockpile as becoming “older” and “getting obsolete.” He added that the country needs to “modernize,” claiming that no efforts had been taken toward that aim in the past three decades.
Wright stressed that modernization does not mean increasing the number of nuclear warheads. “We don’t need to grow our nuclear stockpile,” he said, but rather to “make sure everything is in tip-top shape.”
The US official did not provide details on the number of warheads to be refurbished or the deadline for the effort.
“The best thing about nuclear weapons is to not use them… And to not use them, the world has to have 100% confidence that America leads the world in the weapons technology, the reliability, and the assessment of our stockpile,” Wright added.
He claimed that the Manhattan Project – which resulted in the creation of the first ever atomic bomb and the subsequent bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II – had provided the US with the nuclear capacity to “win” the Cold War. He also predicted the country would be in “a much better position in a few years… again, with a president that’s focused on that.”
Despite the nuclear modernization pledge, Trump earlier this month called for global disarmament, saying “it’d be great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons.”“Russia and us have by far the most. China will have an equal amount within four or five years… Denuclearization would be incredible,” the US president added.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded by saying that while Russia is open to talks with the US on the issue, “it is impossible to just overlook European nuclear arsenals in this dialogue.”
The US has more than 5,000 nuclear warheads, with roughly 1,770 deployed. Russia holds approximately 5,880 warheads, of which around 1,700 are deployed. The UK has about 225, and France 290. The exact number of Chinese warheads is unknown, but is estimated at around 600.
Russia and the US are signatories to the 2010 New START treaty, which limits each side to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads. Moscow suspended its participation in the agreement in 2023, citing the absurdity of the inspection regime for strategic facilities due to deep Western involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
