Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

START Glossary

by John Isaacs [contact information]

March 11, 2009

Accountable weapons – Tally of weapons carried on a delivery vehicle based on the design capacity of the vehicle rather than an actual count of what the vehicle currently carries (i.e., a missile that is configured to carry three nuclear warheads but currently only carries one would have three accountable weapons)

ALCMs – Air launched cruise missiles

Delivery vehicle – The land- or sea-based missile or airplane that carries and launches a nuclear weapon

ICBM – Intercontinental ballistic missile; capable of delivering nuclear weapons across continents

MOU – Memorandum of Understanding, usually between two governments

Nuclear Posture Review – A comprehensive review, usually led by the Pentagon, of the U.S. nuclear weapons strategy, doctrine, stockpiles, and plans

Prompt Global Strike weapons – A missile originally designed to carry a nuclear payload which has been reconfigured to carry a conventional or non-nuclear warhead

SLBM – Submarine launched ballistic missile; capable of delivering nuclear weapons long distances from submarines

SORT – Also known as the Treaty of Moscow, an agreement between the United States and Russia signed in 2002 to reduce deployed strategic nuclear weapons to between 1,700 and 2,000 per side by 2012

START – Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty; several START treaties have been negotiated

START I – Signed on July 31, 1991, it included an extensive verification regime and required each country’s deployed strategic offensive arms not to exceed 1,600 delivery vehicles and no more than 6,000 warheads

START II – Signed in January 1993 but never put into effect, it used counting rules similar to START I and called for reducing deployed strategic arsenals to between 3,000 and 3,500 warheads per side

START III – Agreed to as a framework in March 1997 but formal negotiations never began because of the delay in the entry into force of START II; the START III framework included a reduction in deployed strategic weapons to between 2,000 and 2,500 per side

Strategic nuclear weapon – Nuclear weapon that travels long distances delivered by a land- or sea-based missile or long-range bomber

Tactical nuclear weapon – Short-range nuclear weapon capable of going only a few hundred miles that was designed for battlefield usage

Telemetry – the technical information generated during flight tests of ballistic missiles.

Throw weight – Lifting power of a missile launcher

Warhead – The explosive device, either nuclear or non-nuclear, on top of a missile

WMDs – Weapons of mass destruction, a category that usually includes nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons