Nuclear parity

Mass Retaliation

After the end of World War II , the United States decided to intensively build up nuclear forces for a possible major blow to the USSR. US President Dwight Eisenhower called this approach “ massive retaliation ”. However, soon the development of the arsenal and its delivery methods on both sides reached such a limit that a new doctrine was required.

Mutual Assured Destruction - Nuclear Deterrence

The new doctrine of the United States appeared as a result of research by John Nash and Thomas Schelling in the field of game theory , cooperation and conflict . In the 1960s, US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara used the term " guaranteed destruction " - according to him, the US ability to cause significant harm to the USSR after the first nuclear strike. Subsequently, the terms “ mutual assured destruction ” and “ nuclear deterrence ” appeared , indicating a key point in the strategy: knowing that after a successful first strike a destructive retaliatory strike is inevitable, opponents are unlikely to go to conflict, as this is a guaranteed destruction of both parties.

This approach, adopted by both parties, successfully prevented nuclear war and most nuclear conflicts in the 20th century . Deficiencies in the approach emerged during the Caribbean Crisis , which occurred during a significant preponderance of US nuclear forces, as well as a number of cases of false positives .

At the end of the Cold War, a number of agreements on the quantitative reduction of nuclear forces were adopted and implemented (see Disarmament below), but until recently, the United States and Russia still have enough for mutual destruction, since the number of nuclear warheads in 2009 was: about 9600 from the USA ^[1] (ready for installation and already placed on carriers) and 12683 from Russia ^[2] .

US Modern Doctrine

Currently, the United States has adopted and is actively pursuing the doctrine of absolute military dominance over potential opponents, which excludes not only parity, but also the very possibility of achieving parity in the future. The National Security Strategy , adopted in 2002 by the George W. Bush administration , states ^[3] :

Our forces will be equipped enough to convince potential adversaries not to build up their arms in the hope of surpassing or leveling with the power of the United States.

Also in 2002, the United States withdrew from the Treaty on the Limitation of Missile Defense , adopted in 1972 to limit the arms race . Some American experts point out that costly modern missile defense systems are not able to protect against a first strike and, therefore, can only be useful to the United States as a defense against a weakened retaliatory strike ^[4] .

The latest US National Security Strategy was published by the Barack Obama government in May 2010. ^[5]

In the USSR, the official point of view from the very beginning of the arms race explained the development of nuclear forces as the need to deter US aggression.

Nuclear Parity

Since the advent of nuclear weapons, the USSR has sought to develop nuclear forces comparable to those of the United States. The USSR was the second to test a nuclear bomb on August 29, 1949, and the first - a finished hydrogen bomb on August 12, 1953. With considerable effort, approximate parity was achieved by the mid-1970s. The term "nuclear parity" was distributed mainly in the USSR, since the US doctrines emphasized either superiority or a guaranteed second strike.

Disarmament and reasonable sufficiency

Gradually, with the development of armaments and a quantitative reduction in the army — and especially after achieving nuclear parity — the official position of the “struggle for disarmament” became generally accepted in the USSR. A number of key international treaties have been adopted limiting the development of nuclear weapons while maintaining parity, including:

• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ( 1963 )
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ( 1969 )
• Ballistic Missile Defense Treaty ( 1972 )
• OSV-2 ( 1979 )
• Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles ( 1987 )
• START-1 ( 1991 )

START-1 and the collapse of the USSR were followed by a number of additional treaties that quantitatively limit the arsenal of Russia and the United States, including:

• START-2 ( 1993 , did not enter into force)
• Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty ( 2002 )
• START-3 ( 2010 )

The modern doctrine of Russia

The official document “ Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation ”, adopted on April 21, 2000 , contains the following provisions:

• Russia "maintains the status of a nuclear power to deter (prevent) aggression against it and (or) its allies";
• "Ready for a further reduction of its nuclear weapons on a bilateral basis ... to the minimum levels that meet the requirements of strategic stability."

The comments of the Ministry of Defense indicate that “deterrence will be based on their (strength) ability in response to cause damage, the size of which would call into question the achievement of the goals of possible aggression.”

The concept of "nuclear parity" applies mainly to the USSR / Russia and the USA with their allies. So far, no country's nuclear arsenal can yet be compared with the reserves of Russia and the United States. The remaining nuclear powers periodically promote their nuclear capabilities for political purposes with limited regional implications.

The most powerful nuclear state, albeit significantly inferior to Russia and the United States, is China, with approximately 500 nuclear warheads. and is actively expanding its nuclear arsenal.

Other states, such as India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, France, and the DPRK, have a small nuclear stockpile and do not develop it too much. Israel significantly develops its nuclear weapons, but carefully hides any information about the quantity.

• More than 90% of the world's nuclear arsenals are in Russia and the United States. According to the BBC , as of September 2016 , Russia had 1,796 strategic nuclear warheads, the United States had 1,367. At least 100 American nuclear warheads were aimed at Moscow ^[6] .
• The cruising speed of the ICBM flight is about 20 thousand km / h ( Mach 23); flight takes place outside the earth's atmosphere . The descent to the target occurs at a speed of more than 6 km / s. The flight time of land-based ICBMs from Russia to the USA lies in the range of 25-30 minutes. For underwater missiles, flight time can be significantly less: up to 12 minutes ^[6] .

• US Strategic Nuclear Forces
• Strategic Nuclear Forces of the Russian Federation
• Nuclear race
• Nuclear war
• Strategic Missile Forces of Russia
• Militarism
• Realistic scare
• Doomsday Clock

• US doubts about the combat readiness of Russia's nuclear forces - Izvestia article
• Documents and agreements aimed at limiting and destroying nuclear weapons, ending nuclear tests
• US National Security Strategy 2010
• Rocket parity - RIA Novosti, 08/21/2017.