US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have signed the landmark nuclear New Start treaty in the Czech capital, Prague on Thursday.Under the pact, each side would be allowed a maximum of 1,550 warheads, about 30% lower than the figure of 2,200 that each side was meant to reach by 2012 under the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (Sort). They will also be allowed, in total, no more than 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear arms. The new limit on delivery systems is less than half the current ceiling of 1,600 - though each heavy bomber counts as one warhead irrespective of the fact that it might carry multiple bombs or missiles.
