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“It will take all of us working together – government officials, and diplomats, academic experts, and scientists, activists, and organizers – to come up with new and innovative approaches to strengthen transparency and predictability, reduce risk, and forge the next generation of arms control agreements.”
– Wendy Sherman
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
June 2, 2022
U.S. and Soviet/Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces
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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 January 1999 MOU, demonstrating the progress the parties have made in nuclear force reduction thus far. —For more information, contact Craig Cerniello.

U.S. Strategic Forces:

Warheads by Delivery System1

  September

1990

January

1999

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 1,572
B-52 (Non-ALCM) 290 48
B-1 95 91
B-2 0 20
Total 2,353 1,731
<Total Warheads 10,563 7,958

Soviet/Russian Strategic Forces:

Warheads by Delivery System1

  September

19902

January

19993

ICBMs    
SS-11 326 0
SS-13 40 0
SS-17 188 0
SS-18 3,080 1,800
SS-19 1,800 960
SS-24 (silo) 560 100
SS-24 (rail) 330 360
SS-25 288 360
SS-27 (silo)4 10
SS-27 (road)4 0
Total 6,612 3,590
SLBMs    
SS-N-6 192 0
SS-N-8 280 152
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 2,424
Bombers    
Bear (ALCM) 672 512
Bear (Non-ALCM) 63 4
Blackjack 120 48
Total 855 564
Total Warheads 10,271 6,578

Strategic Forces on Non-Russian Territory1

  Belarus Kazakhstan Ukraine
ICBMs 0 0 440 (SS-24)
SLBMs 0 0 0
Bombers 0 0 200 (Bear)

144 (Blackjack)

Total 0 0 784

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.

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2. Includes weapons in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine.

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3. Weapons in Russia only.

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4. Also known as the TOPOL-M or RS-12M Variant 2 ICBM.

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Sources: START I Memorandum of Understanding, January 1, 999; ACA.