"I find hope in the work of long-established groups such as the Arms Control Association...[and] I find hope in younger anti-nuclear activists and the movement around the world to formally ban the bomb."
U.S. and Soviet/Russian Strategic Nuclear 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 September 1990 MOU with data from the July 1998 MOU, demonstrating the progress the parties have made in nuclear force reduction thus far.
U.S. Strategic Forces:
Warheads by Delivery System1
September 1990 | July 1998 | |||
ICBMs | ||||
MX | 500 | 500 | ||
Minuteman III | 1,500 | 1,950 | ||
Minuteman II | 450 | 1 | ||
Total | 2,450 | 2,451 | ||
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 | 1,596 | ||
B-52 (Non-ALCM) | 290 | 48 | ||
B-1 | 95 | 91 | ||
B-2 | 0 | 20 | ||
Total | 2,353 | 1,755 | ||
Total Warheads | 10,563 | 7,982 |
Soviet/Russian Strategic Forces:
Warheads by Delivery System1
September 19902 | July 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 | 4 | ||
Blackjack | 120 | 48 | ||
Total | 855 | 564 | ||
Total Warheads | 10,271 | 6,674 |
Strategic Forces on Non-Russian Territory1
Belarus | Kazakhstan | Ukraine | |
ICBMs | 0 | 0 | 54 (SS-19) 460 (SS-24) |
SLBMs | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Bombers | 0 | 0 | 200 (Bear) 152 (Blackjack) |
Total | 0 | 0 | 866 |
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, July 1, 1998; ACA.