Russia needs to have no more than 1,200 warheads in its nuclear arsenal to maintain strategic deterrence, General Designer of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology Yury Solomonov said.
"Let me say again. Eleven years ago, in answer to an official letter of the Security Council, I wrote that 1,000 – 1,200 warheads would be sufficient for the Russian Federation," Solomonov said in an interview with Interfax-AVN.
"This is more than enough to guarantee national security in conditions predictable for the next 10, 20 and 30 years," he said.
At the same time, the new strategic arms reduction treaty allows Russia and the United States to have 1,550 warheads each, Solomonov said.
"The issue of minimal sufficient size of nuclear forces needed to guarantee security is philosophical rather than military-technical," he said. As an example of reasonable sufficiency he named other members of the "nuclear club", including France, Britain and China, which also rely on nuclear forces to ensure their national security.
"Take China – 200-250 warheads, or Britain – hundreds of warheads, or France – the same. Will anyone attack them? It is clear than no one is going to fight using nuclear weapons. It is a deterrence weapon, so all who have it will remain aware that if they use it against an enemy who has nuclear weapons, too, they will not find the response amusing," Solomonov said.
"But then the question arises: If Russia accounts for 2% of gross world product, why should it have the same huge amount of strategic nuclear forces, warheads, as states that account for 25% have?
"Obviously, the economic opportunities of the former and latter cannot be compared. So why should we sweat our guts out?" Solomonov said.
