The United States must urgently adopt a coordinated national strategy integrating nuclear energy, artificial intelligence (AI), and autonomous systems if it is to maintain a military edge over China, according to a new commentary by leading aerospace and defence executive Vivek Lall.

Writing in a recent article, Lall argues that while China publicly revealed its nuclear weapons triad in September 2025, its more consequential progress lies in what he terms a “tech triad” — the deep integration of nuclear energy, AI, and autonomous military systems. He warns that Beijing has moved far faster than Washington in recognising and exploiting the interconnected nature of these technologies.

Lall credits the Chinese Communist Party with seeing “the big picture,” noting that China views nuclear power, AI, and autonomous systems as the three foundational pillars of future military dominance. According to his analysis, nuclear energy supplies the massive and reliable electricity required to run advanced AI systems, while AI enables autonomous operations across a wide range of platforms.

He points to China’s rapid expansion of nuclear infrastructure as a central component of this strategy. China has already built 34 nuclear reactors and plans to construct nearly 200 more, a scale of development aimed at powering energy-intensive AI models. These systems, Lall notes, are already being deployed in military contexts, including coordinated drone swarms, robotic scout dogs, and sophisticated war-game simulations.

As more nuclear reactors come online, Lall argues, China’s AI capabilities are expected to advance rapidly. He cites AI platforms such as DeepSeek as examples of systems that could soon enhance China’s ability to project power across multiple domains, including land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.

In contrast, Lall says the US approach remains fragmented and lacks a unified national vision. While American private companies continue to lead the world in AI innovation, he notes there is no comparable national commitment to providing the energy infrastructure required to sustain and scale these technologies. He highlights that, at present, there are no large-scale nuclear reactors under construction in the United States.

Lall acknowledges that President Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy offers a potential foundation for change. The strategy states that the future of military power will be determined by AI, quantum computing, autonomous systems, and the energy required to fuel these domains. However, Lall argues that recognising the challenge is not enough without decisive implementation.

He urges the administration to direct the Department of War and the Department of Energy to immediately launch a National Integration Initiative. Such an initiative, he says, should focus on removing regulatory bottlenecks, streamlining licensing and environmental reviews, easing export restrictions in coordination with allies, and funding high-impact demonstration projects.

Crucially, Lall emphasises that the government’s role should be to empower, rather than replace, the private sector. He argues that only a coordinated public-private approach can ensure the United States keeps pace with China’s rapidly advancing military-technological integration.

Without swift action, Lall warns, the US risks falling behind in the technologies that will define global power and security in the decades ahead.