In the course of the nuclear arms race, both the US and the Soviet Union have filled their arsenals with tens of thousands of nuclear warheads and with thousands of vehicles to deliver those warheads. The nuclear weapons now deployed vary in size and design from sub‐kiloton artillery shells to 20‐megaton warheads, and their delivery vehicles include land‐ and sea‐based ballistic missiles as well as long‐range aircraft and the new cruise missiles. Not only have the numbers and types of nuclear weapons grown, so, too, have their capabilities. The newer ballistic missiles are tipped with multiple reentry vehicles. They have longer ranges, greater accuracies, and increasingly sophisticated guidance systems. These weapons are further augmented by ever‐more‐able systems for land, air and sea defense and for command, communication and control. These many dimensions of the US and Soviet nuclear arsenals require that one assess their respective strengths on a multiparameter scale. Even then, any inherently quantitative comparison is incomplete, for it ignores the equally important, qualitative features of the arsenals where, in fact, much of the recent development has occurred.

Topics
Aircraft, Ballistics, Nuclear weapons
1.
The Military Balance 1981–1982, The International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (1982).
2.
R. Forsberg, Sci. Am., November 1982, page 54.
3.
F. Barnaby, AMBIO 11, Nos. 2–3 (1982), page 76.
4.
“Preparing for Nuclear War: President Reagan's Program,” The Defense Monitor 10, No. 8, Center for Defense Information (1982).
5.
A. A. Tinajero, “US/USSR Strategic Offensive Weapons: Projected Inventories Based on Carter's Policies,” Congressional Research Service Report 81‐238F (1981).
6.
R. Pretty, ed., Janes' Weapons Systems 1981, Key Book Service, Bridgeport, Conn. (1982).
7.
Soviet Military Power, Pub. by the US Department of Defense (1982).
8.
“US Strategic Offensive Forces in the 1960's,” in, Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policies, Appendices, 4, page 139.
9.
R. Speed, Strategic Deterrence in the 1980s, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif. (1979) p. 38.
10.
H. Feiveson, F. von Hippel, PHYSICS TODAY, January 1983, page 40.
11.
World Armaments and Disarmament, SIPRI Yearbook 1981, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, London (1981).
This content is only available via PDF.
© 1983 American Institute of Physics.
1983
American Institute of Physics
You do not currently have access to this content.