they appear to be the ss-4: range of a thousand miles, three-megaton nuclear warhead.
gentlemen, as most of you now know a u-2 over cuba on sunday morning took a series of disturbing photographs.
our analysis at npic indicates the soviet union has followed its conventional weapons build-up in cuba with the introduction of surface-to surface medium-range ballistic missiles, or mrbms. our official estimate at this time is that this missile system is the ss-4 sandal. we do not believe these missiles are as yet operational.
ironbark reports the ss-4 can deliver a 3-megaton nuclear weapon 1000 miles. so far we have identified 32 missiles served by around 3400 men, undoubtedly all soviet personnel. our cities and military installations in the southeast, as far north as washington, are in range of these weapons, and in the event of a launch, would only have five minutes of warning.
yes, mr. president. these are nuclear missiles.
general taylor can answer that question better than i can.
mr. president.
this morning's photography is in. it appears the soviets have commenced a crash program to ready the missiles.
the first missiles became operational last night.
we expect they'll all be operational in 36 hours: monday morning.
that may not be as easy as we thought either. we've gotten confirmation that the soviets have also deployed battlefield nuclear weapons to cuba.