§ Mr. Churchillasked the Secretary of State for Defence if, from information available to him, he will give further details of the characteristics and deployment of the new Soviet medium-range ballistic missile capable of hitting all the major cities of Western Europe referred to in paragraph 17 of his Statement on the Defence Estimates 1976; whether this is in addition to the 600 medium-range ballistic missile warheads already deployed against targets in the United Kingdom and Western Europe; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. DuffyThe new missile, which will replace the 600 Soviet intermediate and medium-range ballistic missiles currently targetted against the United Kingdom and Western Europe, has a range of some 2,400 miles. Each carries three independently targetted nuclear warheads. The initial deployment of these missiles is expected to begin soon, and may even have already begun, but the scale of deployment is not yet known.