10:02 17-11-2025

U.S. Falls Behind Russia in Nuclear Triad Modernization

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Evgeny Buzhinsky explains why the U.S. lags behind Russia in nuclear-triad upgrades and key weapons programs, from Dark Eagle to Sentinel and Columbia submarines.

Retired lieutenant general and military analyst Evgeny Buzhinsky says the United States is lagging far behind Russia in modernizing its nuclear triad and advancing next-generation weapons programs. In an interview with aif.ru, he pointed out that Washington continues to struggle with projects that were announced years ago but never reached operational readiness.

Buzhinsky recalled that back in 2018, then-president Donald Trump publicly touted the creation of a «super-duper missile» — the Dark Eagle hypersonic system. Seven years later, he noted, the program remains stuck in testing and has yet to be fielded.

He also stressed that the U.S. still has no analogue to the compact nuclear propulsion unit installed on Russia’s Burevestnik cruise missile.

According to him, Russia has effectively completed its own nuclear-triad overhaul. He said that once the Sarmat intercontinental missile fully replaces the Voevoda by 2030, Russia’s oldest silo-based system will be the Topol-M, which entered serial production in 1997. In contrast, he emphasized, the backbone of America’s land-based arsenal remains the Minuteman III, deployed in the 1970s.

Buzhinsky also highlighted several major U.S. defense projects that remain unrealized. Of the 400 silos planned for the Sentinel missile, not a single one has been built, he said. A similar situation persists with the Columbia-class nuclear submarines: none of the twelve announced boats has been launched. As for the B-21 Raider long-range bomber, only two prototypes have been produced out of the roughly one hundred aircraft expected.