U.S. Strategic Forces Under the Prospective START Treaty

The United States has been trying to negotiate a new treaty with the Soviet Union to limit strategic nuclear arms since the SALT I Interim Agreement entered into force in 1972. After numerous changes in U.S. and Soviet leadership, several negotiating forums, and one signed but unratified treaty, an agreement may finally be within reach. Under the umbrella of the current Nuclear and Space Talks, the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks START have made sufficient progress that by the end of the Reagan administration the overall structure of a prospective agreement had been fairly well defined. However, as the negotiations draw ever tighter constraints about allowed forces, it becomes more difficult to proceed without projecting with some confidence which forces the United States would actually deploy under START. This Note is presented in the hope of contributing to an informed debate on planning U.S. strategic forces under START, thereby facilitating both the development of U.S. negotiating strategy and strategic force modernization planning.