On the Wednesday, January 7, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: “The Nuclear Sponge” is a five-part project by USA TODAY that dives into the strategic debate and costs of modernizing the land leg of America’s nuclear arsenal. USA TODAY Defense Reporter Davis Winkie joins USA TODAY’s The Excerpt to share his insights.

In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to build the Golden Dome, an integrated defense system to protect nations against ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile threats. The Golden Dome will be a “system of systems,” combining different capabilities to detect, track and intercept threats from an adversary nation.

What happens when the United States tries to build a missile shield so ambitious that Russia and China start dreaming up weapons that no defense can stop? Two demonstrations of Russian weapons pageantry this fall offered a clear, if unsettling, glimpse of ...

America's 450 nuclear missile silos exist, at least in part, to be destroyed in a nuclear attack. USA TODAY breaks down the debate over their future.