SALT-II

Salt-II 1979


SALT-II is a nuclear treaty between the United States and the former Soviet Union that put into place a ceiling of 2,250 delivery vehicles (long range bombers, ICBMs and SLBMs) that the United States and the Soviet Union could each have at any given time. The agreement forced the Soviet Union to destroy 250 existing vehicles in excess of the alloted. The United States however was able to build up its supply, because they only had 2060 at the time of the agreement.
The agreement however had no effect on nuclear warheads, where the United States had a clear advantage, 9,200 to the Soviet Union's 5000.

SALT -ll and its predecessor SALT-l ended up contributing to the technical side of the arms race. Since they restricted the number of delivery vehicles, not the number of warheads, there was immediate impetus to find a way to put multiple warheads on one delivery vehicle so as to work around the limit. Some means of doing so that emerged included MIRV warheads, SRAM and ALCMs.