HL Deb 14 April 1983 vol 441 cc392-3WA
Lord Jenkins of Putney

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, in terms of numbers of warheads and total lethality in units of a thousand, USA strategic nuclear weapons currently deployed exceed those of the USSR.

Lord Belstead

The Soviet Union surpassed the USA in total destructive power in their strategic systems in the late 1960s and in the number of strategic nuclear delivery vehicles in the early 1970s. United States megatonnage is now only some 25 per cent. of its early 1960s level. Soviet strategic forces are newer and their launchers outnumber those of the US. The USA has at present slightly more strategic warheads but this advantage is diminishing with the continuing Soviet deployments of multiple warhead systems (MIRVs).