The United States and Russia are in a race to upgrade their nuclear forces. Moscow has moved forward in its modernisation efforts that are expected to change Russia’s strategic and non-strategic nuclear weapons while the U.S. has plans of its own.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists said Russia will update its nuclear capabilities to a total of 4,500 warheads. Roughly 1,780 strategic warheads are in missiles at bomber bases. The modernisation process includes the replacement of intercontinental ballistic missiles from the Soviet era with new rocket launch systems.

Russia is also planning to develop and launch an updated version of its Borei-class ballistic missile submarine. Within the next ten years, Moscow is planning to replace two older ballistic missile submarine classes with the new Borei. The new submarines will have improved electronic systems among other modifications.

The U.S. is also looking to enhance the armed forces’ nuclear weapons and develop platforms to make its arsenal more efficient without the need for new warheads. Matthew Bunn, a nuclear proliferation expert at Harvard, said the U.S. has been modernising existing strategic systems such as acquiring new rocket motors and guidance systems for missiles.

The primary global nuclear actors continue to be the U.S. and Russia. The bilateral arms agreement between the two countries was forged in 2009 as an extension of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks agreement. U.S. President Barack Obama and the former president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, had agreed to restrict their strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 for both sides by 2017. According to the Federation of American Scientists, the U.S. has 1,780 strategic warheads while Russia has 1,900.

The U.S.-Russia relations have taken a major hit in the wake of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The ongoing talks about nuclear weapons reduction are in a gridlock.

Meanwhile, former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the West will not reconcile with Russia while the conflict in Ukraine is ongoing. “We all strongly regret that Russia of today has violated not only international law, but also the security architecture we built after the end of the Cold War by attacking Ukraine. And that’s the reason why Western leaders, obviously, have to send a very clear message to the Kremlin,” he added.

When asked about NATO’s massive anti-submarine war games off the coast of Norway and the British-led military exercises in Estonia, Rasmussen said the military drills should be seen as a “response to numerous Russian violations of NATO airspace” and suspicious activity of submarines near NATO borders including the Baltic Sea. Rasmussen added believes the annexation of Crimea was illegal and should not be recognised.

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