New Weapons Detail Reveals True Depth of Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world has come to nuclear war, but exactly how close has been a matter of some speculation. The conflict, itself, has been analyzed and interpreted, but the number and types of nuclear weapons that were operational have not. According to fresh analysis available today in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, senior experts calculate the nature of weapons capabilities on both sides, and write that the situation was even more perilous than history has previously acknowledged. The details on the number and status of weapons—known as the nuclear order of battle—has remained widely overlooked by many authors, experts, and researchers over the past five decades. Several types of US and Soviet nuclear weapons were operational, some on high levels of alert and readily available to use. This information was often omitted by authors in their writing. The three main catagories that must be analyzed are...

• Local forces, which were the Soviet and US nuclear weapons in and around Cuba;
• Regional forces, which were both the US tactical weapons in Europe that could hit targets in the Soviet Union, as well as the Soviet weapons in western USSR that were aimed at European targets;
• Global forces, which included the US strategic nuclear weapons—intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), and long-range bombers—that could reach the Soviet Union, and, of course, the Soviet strategic nuclear weapons that could reach the United States.

 158 Soviet nuclear warheads of five types were already in Cuba by the time the military blockade was imposed on October 24th. Still, 50 years later, it is unknown how ready they were or whether they were specifically targeted at US cities. US Joint Chiefs of Staff considered using nuclear weapons during a Cuban invasion, but by October 31st had decided against this.In Europe, the United States had approximately 500 nuclear weapons at its disposal to attack targets in the western Soviet Union. With its 550 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union had a slightly larger arsenal to hit European targets. By reviewing these numbers, it is revealed that the crisis was more serious and more dangerous than previously thought.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121012074701.htm