§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is his latest assessment of the number of missiles currently stationed by the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Europe.
§ Mr. BlakerThe balance of all land-based nuclear forces in the European theatre at the end of 1980 is laid out in figure 2 of the Statement on the Defence Estimates 1981, Cmnd. 8212–1, which shows that there is a wide and growing disparity in favour of the Soviet Union. Since then the Soviet Union has increased the number of its SS20 missiles facing Western Europe from 120 to about 170 out of a total deployment of over 250 such missiles.