US Nuclear Weapons Testing
On 30 October 2025, President Trump announced on his social network Truth Social that he had directed the Department of Defense to resume testing nuclear weapons "on an equal basis" with Russia and China. "Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately," Trump said on Truth Social. Trump said that he had instructed the Pentagon to "immediately" start nuclear weapons testing "on an equal basis" with other countries that allegedly have nuclear weapons testing programs. He added that the United States has the largest nuclear arsenal, but China can catch up with it in five years.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton stated 03 November 2025 that CIA Director John Ratcliffe personally confirmed to him that Russia and China hade conducted super-critical nuclear weapons tests exceeding the U.S. zero-yield standard. "After consultations with Director Ratcliffe and his team, they have confirmed to me that the CIA assesses that both Russia and China have conducted super-critical nuclear weapons tests in excess of the U.S. zero-yield standard. These tests are not historic and are part of their nuclear modernization programs."
This assessment indicated the tests are recent and tied to their nuclear modernization efforts, not historical events. Energy Secretary Chris Wright clarified on November 2-3, 2025, that these U.S. tests will not involve actual nuclear explosions or detonations (e.g., no mushroom clouds), but rather non-critical system tests of weapons components excluding the fissile core. This aligns with maintaining the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty moratorium, though the U.S. has not ratified the treaty. The announcements sparked global reactions, including Russian President Putin directing officials to prepare proposals for potential nuclear testing resumption on November 5, 2025. Arms control experts expressedconcerns over potential escalation in a new arms race.
Donald Trump on CBS 60 Minutes, interviewed by Norah O'Donnell on 02 NOvember 2025, said "Well, we have more nuclear weapons than any other country. Russia's second. China's a very distant third, but they'll be even in five years. You know, they're makin' 'em rapidly, and I think we should do something about denuclearization, which is gonna be some-- and I did actually discuss that with both President Putin and President Xi. Denuclearization's a very big thing. We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times. Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, and China will have a lot. They have some. They have quite a bit...
"Well, because you have to see how they work. You know, you do have to-- and the reason I'm saying-- testing is because Russia announced that they were gonna be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea's testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We're the only country that doesn't test, and I wanna be-- I don't wanna be the only country that doesn't test.
"We have tremendous nuclear power that was given to us largely because when I was president (and I hated to do it, but you have to do it)-- I rebuilt the military during my first term. My first term was a tremendous success. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. But my second term is blowing it away. It's blowing it away when you look at the numbers, the stock market, the jobs. Look at the job numbers, how good they've been. And, again, I have costs down. Remember, Biden gave me the worst inflation rate in the history of our country--
"I'm saying that we're going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.... Russia's testing nuclear weapons -- ... And China's testing 'em too. You just don't know about it..... Russia's testing, and China's testing, but they don't talk about it. You know, we're a open society. We're different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it, because otherwise you people are gonna report-- they don't have reporters that gonna be writing about it. We do. No, we're gonna test, because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea's been testing. Pakistan's been testing....
"But they don't go and tell you about it. And, you know, as powerful as they are, this is a big world. You don't necessarily know where they're testing. They-- they test way under-- underground where people don't know exactly what's happening with the test. You feel a little bit of a vibration. They test and we don't test. We have to test. And Russia did make-- a little bit of a threat the other day when they said they were gonna do certain forms of a different level of testing. But Russia tests, China-- and China does test, and we're gonna test also.
"Doesn't it sorta make sense? You know, you make-- you make nuclear weapons, and then you don't test. How are you gonna do that? How are you gonna know if they work? We have to do that-- .... According to me. We have the best, and I was the one that renovated them and built them during a four-year period. And I hated to do it, because the destructive capability is something you don't even wanna talk about. But if other people are gonna have 'em, we're gonna have to have 'em.
"And if we have 'em, we have to test 'em, otherwise you don't really know how they're gonna work. And we don't wanna ever use them. And in the meantime, I've solved eight wars. I knocked out eight wars. I had eight wars-- I brought a little list for you if you'd like to see it-- but I took eight wars and stopped during an eight-month period, during eight months."
Russia last tested a nuclear weapon during the Soviet period in 1990. The US halted its testing in 1992 under a Congress-mandated moratorium. According to a recent estimate by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US has 5,177 nuclear warheads, Russia had 5,459, and China was projected to reach 1,500 by 2035.
According to data from the Washington-based think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), China's nuclear warhead stockpile has doubled from approximately 300 in 2020 to approximately 600 in 2025. The U.S. military estimates that China will possess more than 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030. The organization stated that during its Victory Day parade this September, China displayed five nuclear weapon systems capable of striking the U.S. mainland.
Trump told reporters that resuming nuclear testing was to ensure that the United States could keep pace with other nuclear powers. “Since other countries are conducting nuclear tests, I think we should too,” he said aboard Air Force One, adding that the test site would be determined later. When asked if this meant the world was entering a phase of higher nuclear risk, Trump dismissed the threat: “Our nuclear arsenal is safe.” He then added that he still welcomed nuclear disarmament.
“I want to see nuclear disarmament because we have too many nuclear weapons. Russia is second, China is third, and China will catch up in four or five years,” Trump said. “We are actually in dialogue with Russia on this, and if there is further action, China will also be included.” It is unclear whether the test Trump referred to was a nuclear explosion conducted by the National Nuclear Security Administration or a nuclear missile flight test.
The United States had no valid reason to resume nuclear weapons testing, a practice it halted in 1992, Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball said, citing a lack of technical, military, or political need. The United States is legally obligated to comply with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which almost every country in the world has signed, he added. "Nearly all the world’s nations have joined the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which as a signatory the United States is legally obligated to respect," Kimball said.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has not entered into force. However, there is a strong argument that a customary international law prohibiting nuclear weapon tests exists, based on a long-standing global practice of not testing, coupled with a widespread understanding of a legal or moral obligation to refrain. While the CTBT remains a treaty awaiting ratification for its full legal force, its principles are becoming a de facto norm for many states. Customary international law arises from established, consistent state practices and a sense of legal obligation (opinio juris). Arguments for a customary ban are based on decades of states refraining from nuclear testing, creating a general practice. Opinio juris exists because most states view nuclear testing as a harmful and illegal act, even if the treaty isn't in force.
While the US has signed the CTBT, it is not legally obliged to follow it since Washington never ratified it. It will only enter into force after ratification by all 44 states listed in Annex 2, including the United States, which has not ratified it. When a country signs a treaty, it is expressing general agreement with the treaty’s contents and its intention to comply with the treaty in the future. But it is when a country ratifies a treaty that it confirms that it has completed the necessary domestic legal steps to put the treaty into action. Ratification makes a treaty legally binding for a country under international law.
During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union signed several treaties and agreements to control the nuclear arms race. However, most of these have lapsed or fallen apart. For instance, in 1972, the two signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, but the US withdrew from it in 2002.
Trump's announcement preceded a meeting with China's leader Xi Jinping. It also followed an announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country had successfully test its nuclear-powered Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle, and also the 26 October annnoucement that Russia had also successfully test its Burevestnik nuclear-powered unlimited-range cruise missile.
Putin said Moscow had successfully tested a new atomic-powered and nuclear-capable underwater drone, the Poseidon, on Tuesday. The Russian president said about the Poseidon: “There is nothing like this in the world in terms of the speed and the depth of the movement of this unmanned vehicle – and it is unlikely there ever will be.”
A nuclear-powered platform or weapon – whether an aircraft carrier, missile or drone – draws its propulsion from nuclear fission instead of traditional fuels. But a nuclear-powered object isn’t automatically a nuclear weapon: nuclear power also generates a 10th of the world’s electricity. A nuclear-capable weapon, like the Poseidon, could, however, become a nuclear weapon: It is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. But for now, Russia had tested these weapons without any nuclear warhead.
Donald Trump’s move to resume nuclear testing is an effort “to hijack the global media spotlight” after Vladimir Putin’s announcement of the successful tests of Russia’s Burevestnik cruise missile and Poseidon nuclear torpedo, believes Russian military analyst Igor Korotchenko. Even though Russia has emphasized that these launches cannot in any way be regarded as nuclear tests, the US reaction is “classic overcompensation born of an inferiority complex — as Russia advances while America clings to its aging nuclear triad,” Igor Korotchenko, who is also editor in chief of "National Defense" magazine and Director of the Center for analysis of world arms trade, told Sputnik.
Although US Minuteman III ICBMs, Trident D5 SLBMs and air-launched cruise missiles were developed decades ago, they are fully operational for use against a potential adversary, explains the expert. However, resuming the actual nuclear tests might present a challenge.
The US would need “at least 36 months to resume contained nuclear tests underground at the former test site in Nevada, media reports cite Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, as saying. Though Nevada’s site is fully maintained, preparing for a full-scale test would indeed take time, agrees Korotchenko.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that there are no detailed expert-level negotiations on nuclear disarmament between Russia and the US at present, though the issue has been brought up repeatedly. Indeed, the US previously exited the ABM Treaty, withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), and effectively nullified New START — something that may become de jure, Korotchenko points out.
The US never ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) – only making a voluntarily pledge not to conduct nuclear tests. But that verbal commitment is mere “political toilet paper” – to be “flushed whenever US military or political convenience demands,” says the analyst. US President Donald Trump has claimed that other countries are conducting nuclear weapon tests, but if he was referring to Russia's Burevestnik missile, such claims are incorrect, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“President Trump, in his statement, mentioned that other countries are supposedly conducting nuclear weapons tests... If, in some way, this refers to the Burevestnik [missile] test, it is in no way a nuclear test,” Peskov told reporters. “You probably noticed that [Russia President Vladimir Putin] spoke about Burevestnik on Sunday, and yesterday he referred to [the Poseidon missile] trial that happened two days earlier,” Peskov said.
In Foreign Affairs magazine of July/August 2024, Robert C. O’Brien, a former national security adviser to Mr. Trump, wrote, “The United States has to maintain technical and numerical superiority to the combined Chinese and Russian nuclear stockpiles. To do so, Washington must test new nuclear weapons for reliability and safety in the real world for the first time since 1992—not just by using computer models. If China and Russia continue to refuse to engage in good-faith arms control talks, the United States should also resume production of uranium-235 and plutonium-239, the primary fissile isotopes of nuclear weapons.”
The Washington Post reported on 22 May 2020 that officials in U.S. President Donald Trump's administration discussed whether to conduct the country's first nuclear test explosion since 1992. The newspaper cited a senior administration official and two former officials as saying the topic came up at a 15 May meeting of top national-security officials. What prompted the discussion was U.S. suspicions that both Russia and China have been conducting low-yield nuclear tests in recent years. The meeting did not conclude with any agreement to conduct a nuclear test. A decision was ultimately made to take other measures in response and to avoid a resumption of testing, the Post said. In 2019 the director of the Pentagon's intelligence agency caused a stir when he asserted that Russia had moved forward in developing new nonstrategic nuclear weapons and might have been violating an international test ban in place for decades. "The United States believes Russia is probably not adhering to the nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the zero-yield standard," Lieutenant General Robert Ashley said at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, DC thinktank, in May 2019.
According to a reporter from Time magazine, the first steps toward resuming nuclear tests in the US were made in 2017. At the time, an unnamed National Nuclear Security Administration official told the reporter that nuclear tests could potentially be conducted for "political purposes".
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