§ 48. Mr. James Lamondasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is his estimate of the number of Soviet missiles.
§ Mr. BlakerI assume the hon. Member is referring to nuclear missiles. In this category, the Soviet Union has 1,398 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 950 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and about 600 longer-range intermediate nuclear missiles. Many of these carry more than one warhead. It is not possible to estimate accurately the large numbers of nuclear capable missiles of shorter range with the Soviet armed forces. Virtually all Soviet tactical missiles are dual capable, however, and these include anti-ship, air-to-surface, and the larger surface-to-air systems. There are at least 1,300 surface-to-surface missiles of the Scud, Scaleboard and Frog types in the European theatre in addition to those deployed elsewhere.