Steven D Kelley, a former CIA/NSA contractor, made the comments in an interview with Press TV on Sunday when asked about US officials who called for modernizing the country’s decades-old nuclear forces.

The commander of the US Strategic Command, Adm. Cecil Haney, and other Pentagon officials have said that the US will risk eroding its credibility as a deterrent to attack by others if it does not start the modernization process now.

“The delivery systems for the United States’ nuclear arsenal are considerably obsolete and out-of-date, they have not been modernized and all of these rockets have actually been used well beyond the useful date that they were intended to be used for, so those useful dates have been extended considerably,” Kelley said.

“The Russians, on the other hand, have become quite advanced in their delivery system and missile technology and unlike the Americans, they have quite a few new systems and development and obviously with the success of the S-300 and S-400, the Americans are certainly long overdue in trying to catch up and maintain some sort of a credible delivery system,” he added.

He went on to say that “the players that would be requiring some sort of a psychological demonstration would mostly be junior players like North Korea."

US officials’ warning over the country’s old nuclear forces came after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on January 6, triggering a diplomatic row.

Following the test, North Korea said it would stop its nuclear tests if the United States signed a peace treaty with Pyongyang and stopped its joint annual military maneuvers with South Korea.

S/SH