The new START (Strategic Arms Reduction...
of 600 kilometers of any type that is contained in, or launched from, a submarine.This reduction in missile range is absolutely logical because concealed and maneuverable submarines can approach the coast and receive strategic capabilities even when equipped with missiles having a shorter range than ICBMs.
Although long-range cruise missiles have the same capabilities, this and previous START treaties give strategic-arms status to air-launched cruise missiles alone. The deployment of sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) is currently limited by a 1991 Soviet-U.S. agreement to remove all tactical nuclear weapons from naval surface ships and submarines.
This definition covered Soviet S-10 Granat (SS-N-21 Sampson) and U.S. BGM-109A Tomahawk nuclear-tipped long-range cruise missiles.
Although conventional modern SLCMs can play an important strategic role, numerous Russian proposals on limiting this class of naval weapons have not been supported to
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