ABSTRACT
In the absence of any arms control agreement, the United States and the Soviet Union would be expected to deploy new land- and sea-based missiles, to modernize their bomber forces, and to introduce long-range cruise missiles. The resulting balance would leave each side with about 15,000 strategic nuclear weapons, or about 5,000. Both the United States and the Soviet Union indicate they are currently abiding by the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) II Treaty. Therefore, one arms control approach would be to extend or modify that treaty. SALT II placed a ceiling until 1985 on the number of strategic nuclear delivery vehicles of 2,250. The Reagan administration has been particularly concerned with the instabilities created by land-based missiles and by disparities in missile throw weight. The US Strategic Arms Reduction Talks proposal calls for reducing the number of intercontinental ballistic missile and sea-launched ballistic missiles warheads from levels of more than 8,000 to a ceiling of 5,000.
