For almost 80 years, America’s nuclear arsenal has served as the ultimate guarantor of security for ourselves and our allies. But our missile systems are aging and are well past their programmed lifespan. Unless dramatic action is taken — and soon — it won’t be long before our adversaries can discount any threat from the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Our antiquated nuclear deterrent is a relic of the Cold War, with systems desperately in need of replacement. The newest nuclear weapon in the arsenal is over 30 years old. America’s Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were supposed to be replaced when Ronald Reagan was still president, and the Navy’s ballistic missile submarine fleet will soon be overdue for its own retirement.

The good news: A modernization effort is underway. All of these Cold War-era systems are being replaced — simultaneously — with next-generation missiles, warheads, bombers and submarines. The bad news: It’s moving much too slowly if we expect to keep us safe in the years ahead.

The next-generation ballistic missile submarine, for example, is years behind schedule. The Department of Energy says that America’s nuclear enterprise won’t be producing new plutonium pits or warheads at scale until the mid-2030s.

But the biggest problems are that America’s next-generation ICBM, the Sentinel program, is 87% over budget and behind schedule. This is because much of the infrastructure surrounding the rocket — the underground tunnels, the command-and-control systems, the computer systems, the wiring, the missile silos themselves — all need to be replaced, in addition to the missile itself.

Limited increases in the defense budget have not resulted in additional investment in our nuclear deterrent. For far too long the congressional appropriations process has grown the Pentagon bureaucracy and funded questionable research and development spending that won’t help America deter our adversaries or win a war.

There is, however, another way. Congress should use the reconciliation process to establish a Triad Infrastructure Modernization Fund to modernize our nuclear weapons and enable America’s strategic deterrent for generations to come.

The TIMF would pay for nuclear infrastructure modernization such as the construction of missile silos, submarine berths, tunnels, plutonium pit production lines, warhead design and fabrication capabilities, and the nuclear command-and-control centers built during the Cold War. The legislation would put very specific limits on what projects and programs would be funded by TIMF resources.

Unlike the annual appropriations bills with short-term time limits, a reconciliation bill for nuclear modernization could be used for up to 10 years after being signed into law. It would fund $10 billion of infrastructure improvements a year.

The TIMF would not be a permanent increase to the defense budget. It would meet today’s needs to maintain America’s strategic deterrent without cutting into the military’s combat capabilities of the future.

Robert Peters is the Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense Fellow at the Heritage Foundation/Tribune News Service