Originally posted by no1marauder
It's actually the other way around; the Soviet (now Russian) arsenal was developed to prevent the US from waging a first strike. The US has always had a superiority in strategic nuclear weapons.
In the early days of the cold war, the delivery of nukes was by B52s, and Russian heavy bombers. Many of these would not get through, so both nations developed overkill numbers of both bombers and bombs.
Orbiting satellites created the practical intercontinental ballistic missile, which could reach targets in about a half hour, leaving little time for anything but an all out counter attack. MIRV increased this threat, as did submarine based missiles.
The possibility of Laser shoot downs of incomings revives the old concerns of needing overkill capacity, to deny any possibility of a second wave.
I don't know who had the strategic superiority. Can we really trust the information our government or that of the Soviets made public?