Biden's nuke chief pushes back on calls for new arms race with Russia, China
WASHINGTON − An outgoing Biden administration official warned against a looming Cold War-style nuclear arms race in a farewell speech.
Jill Hruby, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the U.S. cannot build more nuclear weapons than Russia and China (and its "gigantic economy") in the decades to come, despite an ongoing $1.7 trillion nuclear arsenal modernization plan.
"A nuclear arms race benefits no one," Hruby, whose agency builds and stores America's nuclear weapons, said Thursday at the Hudson Institute think tank.
Arms control experts are warning the stage is set for a costly new three-way arms race with Russia and China. The last remaining treaty between Russia and the U.S. limiting nuclear weapons deployments − New START − expires in early 2026.
Pentagon officials estimate that China, which has no treaty restrictions on its nuclear warhead numbers, has more than 600 nukes today and will expand their arsenal to 1,000 or more by 2030. The U.S. has 5,580 nuclear weapons, and Russia has a stockpile of 5,044, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
| Country | Nuclear Warheads |
| Russia | 5580 |
| United States | 5044 |
| China | 600 |
Hruby cautioned against taking the wrong lessons from the Cold War's decades-long arms race. Although Moscow built more nuclear warheads (peaking at more than 40,000 in the 1980s), the effort collapsed the Soviet Union's economy and helped lead to its 1991 dissolution.
"That is not the way we're going to win [today]," Hruby said. "Building a lot of weapons over the long run does not seem like it's going to be a winning strategy."
Instead, Hruby said, future U.S. administrations will "have to out think ... both Russia and China" to successfully deter, or prevent, their potential use of nuclear weapons.
Ex-Trump officials want more nukes
Former officials from President-elect Donald Trump's first administration argue otherwise.
Robert O'Brien, who was Trump's national security advisor from 2019 to 2021, wrote in June 2024 that the U.S. "has to maintain technical and numerical superiority to the combined Chinese and Russian nuclear stockpiles."
O'Brien and other Trump-aligned officials also believe the U.S. should resume underground nuclear weapons tests. The last live-fire test of a U.S. nuclear weapon occurred in 1992, though the Senate rejected a treaty banning such tests in 1999. (North Korea is the only country to test a nuclear weapon in the 21st century.)
Russia, which withdrew from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 2023, recently warned the U.S. against resuming explosive nuclear tests. Moscow also changed its nuclear weapons policies in November to allow their use in a wider range of military scenarios.
Trump's nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, said at his Tuesday confirmation hearing that he supports using emergency war production powers to speed nuclear weapons modernization.
Davis Winkie's role covering nuclear threats and national security at Paste BN is supported by a partnership with Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. If you wish to share a news tip, please contact Davis via email at dwinkie@usatoday.com or via the Signal encrypted messaging app at 770-539-3257.