Strategic Weapons Article Index : Current 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
 Latest
 News 		  Most
 Read 		  Most
 Commented		  Hot
 Topics

September 7, 2002

Russia has reversed its previous announcement, saying that it now plans to keep SS-18 Satan heavy ICBMs with multiple warheads in service as the mainstay of its nuclear deterrent through 2016. Previously, Russia had said it would get rid of the huge SS-18s by 2007. Russia originally deployed 180 of these missiles (each with ten nuclear warheads but now has only 144. The US considered these missiles dangerously destabilizing because the Russians could have quickly refitted them with as many as 30 warheads instead of 10, giving them a sudden increase of 3,600 deployed warheads that the US would need a decade to match by building hundreds of new missiles.--Stephen V Cole