U.S. and Soviet/Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces

START I was signed July 31, 1991, by the United States and the Soviet Union. Five months later, the Soviet Union dissolved, leaving four independent states in possession of strategic nuclear weapons: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. On May 23, 1992, the United States and the four nuclear-capable successor states to the Soviet Union signed the "Lisbon Protocol," which makes all five nations party to the START I agreement. START I entered into force December 5, 1994, when the five treaty parties exchanged instruments of ratification in Budapest.

Under the treaty, the five parties semiannually exchange memorandum of understanding (MOU) data providing numbers, types, and locations of accountable strategic nuclear weapons and their associated delivery vehicles. The tables below compare the number of START-accountable deployed warheads declared in the initial September 1990 MOU with data from the January 2000 MOU, demonstrating the progress the parties have made in nuclear force reductions to date. —For more information, contact Philipp C. Bleek.

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U.S. Strategic Forces:

Warheads by Delivery System¹

	September 1990	January 2000
ICBMs
MX	500	500
Minuteman III	1,500	1,908
Minuteman II	450	1
Total	2,450	2,409
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	1,420
B-52 (Non-ALCM)	290	47
B-1	95	91
B-2	0	20
Total	2,353	1,578
Total Warheads	10,563	7,763

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Soviet/Russian Strategic Forces:

Warheads by Delivery System¹

	September 19902	January 20003
ICBMs
SS-11	326	0
SS-13	40	0
SS-17	188	0
SS-18	3,080	1,800
SS-19	1,800	900
SS-24 (silo)	560	100
SS-24 (rail)	330	360
SS-25	288	360
SS-27 (silo)4	—	20
SS-27 (road)4	—	0
Total	6,612	3,540
SLBMs
SS-N-6	192	0
SS-N-8	280	64
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	2,336
Bombers
Bear (ALCM)	672	528
Bear (Non-ALCM)	63	4
Blackjack	120	64
Total	855	596
Total Warheads	10,271	6,472

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Strategic Forces on Non-Russian Territory¹

	Belarus	Kazakhstan	Ukraine
ICBMs	0	0	270 (SS-24)
SLBMs	0	0	0
Bombers	0	0	136 (Bear) 120 (Blackjack)
Total	0	0	526

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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. Even though all nuclear warheads from Ukraine have been transported to Russia, they remain START-accountable until their associated 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, September 1, 1990; START I Memorandum of Understanding, January 31, 2000; ACA.

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