In times of tension in the world arena between different countries and / or ideological camps, many people care about one question: what will happen if the war does begin? Now is the year 2018 and the whole world, in particular Russia, is now passing through such a period once again. At such moments, the only deterrent that impedes the start of a real war is military parity between countries and blocs, and the phrase “if you want peace, prepare for war” becomes particularly relevant and meaningful.
What is it - a theory
Military strategic parity (GSP) is an approximate equality between countries and / or groups of countries in the qualitative and quantitative availability of nuclear and other nuclear weapons, in their ability to develop and produce new types of strategic offensive and defensive weapons, which provides the equivalent possibility of applying retaliatory (reciprocal-counter) strike with causing damage unacceptable to the aggressor side.
To comply with the WWW, it is necessary to consider not only strategic weapons, but also production capacities in order to prevent an arms race.
What is it in practice
In practice, military-strategic parity is the basis of international security, which was established at the end of the Cold War when the Soviet-American agreement on the limitation of missile defense systems (ABM) in 1972 was adopted.
The basis of the VSP is the principle of equal opportunities, rights and the same balance of the parties precisely in the military-political sphere. First of all, we are talking about nuclear missile weapons. And this principle is basic in negotiations on the reduction and limitation of armaments, as well as preventing the creation of the latest types (again, primarily nuclear weapons).
This is not about absolute mirror equality, but rather about the possibility of causing irreparable and unacceptable damage to the aggressor country, up to its complete destruction. However, it is not a question of constantly increasing its military power, thereby upsetting the balance of forces, but of equality in military-strategic potentials, since this parity can also be violated by the intensive arms race of one of the opposing sides. Military-strategic parity is precisely the balance that can be violated at any time by creating weapons of mass destruction, which other countries do not have or do not have protection against.
As mentioned above, the VSP relies mainly on weapons of mass destruction, and primarily on nuclear missile parity. At the same time, Strategic Rocket Forces (Strategic Missile Forces) are the base, material base of the VSP and balance the combination of quantity and quality of weapons of each side in equilibrium. This leads to a balance of combat capabilities, and to the possibility of guaranteed use of weapons to solve the military-strategic tasks of the state under the most pessimistic scenarios for it.
Military-strategic parity of the USSR and the USA
About two decades after the end of World War II, the USSR had a strategic lag in nuclear weapons from the United States of America. By the 70s, it was reduced, and a relative equilibrium in military potential was achieved. This period is known in history as the Cold War. On the verge of armed confrontation, the peaceful and good-neighborly policies of the USSR and other socialist camp countries played a very important role in preventing the outbreak of a hot war, as well as the fact that the leaders of the capitalist world showed common sense and did not continue to escalate a situation that threatened to get out of control.
It was the significant successes of the Soviet Union in the design and manufacture of strategic weapons that helped the USSR achieve military-strategic parity with the United States. This led both sides to the negotiation process, as they realized that in the future no country would be able to achieve any significant superiority without inflicting serious damage on itself and its allies in the form of a retaliatory military strike.
The available forces of the USSR by 1970 consisted of 1, 600 launchers of ICBMs, 316 launchers of SLBMs at 20 naval infantry regiments and approximately 200 strategic bombers. The United States outnumbered the Soviet Union, but military experts from both countries agreed that there was no significant asymmetry in the qualitative ratio.
One of the tasks that military-strategic parity solves is an obstacle for countries and groups of countries to solve their geopolitical issues with the help of nuclear missile weapons. At that time, parity was called the equilibrium of fear. In essence, it remains the same now, and it seems that it is fear of the unknown that stops some countries from rash actions.
Documentation
The guarantors of parity were documents on the account of which long and very complex negotiations were conducted:
- OSV-1 - 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty;
- OSV-2 - 1979 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty;
- ABM - a 1972 missile defense treaty - limiting the deployment of anti-ballistic missile defense systems - was valid until 2002, when the Americans unilaterally withdrew from the treaty;
- Additional Protocol to the ABM Treaty on the Reduction of Accommodation Areas.
By 1980, the military-strategic parity of the USSR to the United States was 2.5 thousand carriers, 7 thousand nuclear charges, while the United States - 2.3 thousand carriers and 10 thousand charges.
All treaties were restrictive in terms of the number of nuclear weapons and enshrined the principle of security in the field of offensive weapons.
