  In January 2007 the CERN director general announced the plan for the staged
upgrade of the LHC luminosity. The plan foresees a phase 1 upgrade reaching a
peak luminosity of $3 \times 10^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ followed by phase
reaching up to $ 10^{35}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. We discuss the physics potential
and the experimental challenges of an upgraded LHC running. The detector R&D
needed to operate ATLAS and CMS in a very high radiation environment and the
expected detector performance are also discussed.
