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242. Protocol to the Treaty Between the United States and the Soviet Union on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms1

Vienna, June 18, 1979.

The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, hereinafter referred to as the Parties,

Having agreed on limitations on strategic offensive arms in the Treaty,

Have agreed on additional limitations for the period during which this Protocol remains in force, as follows:

Article I

Each Party undertakes not to deploy mobile ICBM launchers or to flight-test ICBMs from such launchers.

Article II

1. Each Party undertakes not to deploy cruise missiles capable of a range in excess of 600 kilometers on sea-based launchers or on land-based launchers.

2. Each Party undertakes not to flight-test cruise missiles capable of a range in excess of 600 kilometers which are equipped with multiple independently targetable warheads from sea-based launchers or on land-based launchers.

3. For the purposes of this Protocol, cruise missiles are unmanned, self-propelled, guided, weapon-delivery vehicles which sustain flight through the use of aerodynamic lift over most of their flight path and which are flight-tested from or deployed on sea-based or land-based launchers, that is, sea-launched cruise missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles, respectively.

Article III

Each Party undertakes not to flight-test or deploy ASBMs.

Article IV

This Protocol shall be considered an integral part of the Treaty. It shall enter into force on the day of the entry into force of the Treaty and shall remain in force through December 31, 1981, unless replaced earlier by an agreement on further measures limiting strategic offensive arms.

[Page 966]

Done at Vienna on June 18, 1979, in two copies, each in the English and Russian languages, both texts being equally authentic.2

  1. Source: Documents on Disarmament, 1979, pp. 198–199. The Protocol was signed by Carter and Brezhnev at the summit.↩
  2. The evening of his return to Washington on June 18, President Carter addressed a joint session of Congress to announce the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in Moscow and outline its provisions. His address is printed in Public Papers: Carter, 1979, Book I, pp. 1087–1092.↩