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Arms Control Today » March 1998 » U.S. and Soviet/Russian Strategic Forces

U.S. and Soviet/Russian Strategic Forces

START I was signed July 31, 1991, and entered into force on December 5, 1994. Under the treaty, the five parties—the United States, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine—semi-annually exchange memorandum of understanding (MOU) data providing numbers, types and locations of accountable strategic nuclear weapons. The tables below compare the number of START-accountable deployed warheads declared in the initial Seprember 1990 MOU with data from the January 1998 MOU, demonstrating the progress the parties have made in nuclear force reduction thus far.

—For more information, contact ACA.

U.S. Strategic Forces: Warheads by Delivery System1

  September

1990

 January

1998
ICBMs    
MX 500 500
Minuteman III 1,500 1,917
Minuteman II 450 12
Total 2,450 2,429
SLBMs    
Poseidon (C-3) 1,920 320
Trident I (C-4) 3,072 1,536
Trident II (D-5) 768 1,920
Total 5,760 3,776
Bombers    
B-52 (ALCM) 1,968 1,620
B-52 (Non-ALCM) 290 49
B-1 95 92
B-2 0 20
Total 2,353 1,781
Total Warheads 10,563 7,986

Soviet/Russian Strategic Forces: Warheads by Delivery System1

  September 19902 January

19983
ICBMs    
SS-11 326 0
SS-13 40 0
SS-17 188 0
SS-18 3,080 1,800
SS-19 1,800 1,008
SS-24 silo 560 100
SS-24 rail 330 360
SS-25 288 360
SS-27 (silo)4 — 2
SS-27 (road)4 — 0
Total 6,612 3,630
SLBMs    
SS-N-6 192 16
SS-N-8 280 192
SS-N-17 12 0
SS-N-18 672 624
SS-N-20 1,200 1,200
SS-N-23 448 448
Total 2,804 2,480
Bombers    
Bear (ALCM) 672 512
Bear (Non-ALCM) 63 10
Blackjack 120 48
Total 855 570
Total Warheads 10,271 6,680

Strategic Forces on Non-Russian Territory1

  Belarus Kazakhstan Ukraine
ICBMs 0 0 120 (SS-19)

460 (SS-24)
SLBMs 0 0 0
Bombers 0 0 200 (Bear)

152 (Blackjack)
Total 0 0 932

 

NOTES

1. Warhead attributions are based on START I counting rules. This results in bombers having fewer warheads attributed to them than they actually carry. On the other hand, even though all nuclear warheads from Ukraine have been removed to Russia, they remain START-accountable until the delivery systems have been destroyed. [Back to Table 1 , 2 or 3]

2. Includes weapons in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. [Back to Table]

3. Weapons in Russia only. [Back to Table]

4. Also known as the TOPOL-M or RS-12M Variant 2 ICBM. [Back to Table]

Sources: START I Memorandum of Understanding, January 1, 1998; ACA.