Editing START II (section)

==Replaced by SORT==
However, in 2001, US President [[George W. Bush]] set a plan in motion to reduce the country's missile forces from 6,000 to between 1,700 and 2,200.

Thus, the START II treaty was officially bypassed by the [[Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty]] (SORT), which was agreed to by Bush and Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]] at their summit meeting in November 2001 and signed at Moscow Summit on 24 May 2002. Both sides agreed to reduce operationally-deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,700 from 2,200 by 2012.

On 13 June 2002, the US withdrew from the [[ABM Treaty]], and the following day, Russia announced that it would no longer consider itself to be bound by START II provisions. Both countries continued to pursue their objectives. Russia still retains 54 MIRV-capable RS-20/R-36M ([[R-36 (missile)|SS-18 Satan]]) with 10 warheads each, 40 MIRV-capable RS-18/UR-100N ([[UR-100N|SS-19 Stiletto]]) with 6 warheads each and 24 MIRV-capable [[RS-24 Yars]] with 3 warheads each.<ref>"Chapter Five: Russia and Eurasia", The Military Balance 114, Nr. 1 (1. Januar 2014): 180f.</ref> The US developed the [[Ground-Based Midcourse Defense]] (GMD) system to protect itself from small-scale ICBM attacks.

In October 2002, the US began its unilateral withdrawal of MIRV (including complete deactivation of [[LGM-118 Peacekeeper|Peacekeeper missiles]]) and completed it by 19 September 2005. The [[Minuteman III]] is, as of 2011, the only American land-based operational ICBM. It can potentially carry only three RVs.