There are specific actions that the US could take to expand its nuclear arsenal now that the New START treaty has expired. These mostly have to do with undoing the limitations that were imposed by the treaty. The War Zone reported on Thursday that the treaty’s expiration has created the potential for significant changes in U.S. force posture. This could include loading more warheads into Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), restoring nuclear weapons capability to dozens of B-52 bombers, sending Ohio class ballistic missile submarines on patrol with extra Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), or fielding all-new capabilities, such as nuclear-armed hypersonic missiles.
Some of those are measures that the military has been itching to take for years in anticipation of the possible end of the treaty. “I do believe that we need to take serious consideration in seeing what uploading and re-MIRVing the ICBM looks like, and what does it take to potentially do that,” now-retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, then head of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee back in 2024.
