BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: The ball is in the United States's court on scrapping nuclear missiles after the Russian parliament's recent approval of the long-delayed START II nuclear missile treaty. It has prompted the Pentagon to undertake some major thinking on what may be next and just how many nuclear missiles the U.S. needs. Our CNN military correspondent Jamie McIntyre is at the Pentagon -- Jamie.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bernie, for years the Pentagon complained it couldn't cut nuclear arsenals because the Russian Duma was holding up the START II treaty. But President Putin pushed it through and now is proposing deeper cuts that would take each side as low as 1,000 warheads a piece. The U.S. Joint Chiefs will tell Congress tomorrow they can support the 2,000-2,500 range that Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin agreed to in Helsinki, but lower than that could jeopardize the U.S. ability to have a real nuclear deterrent, that includes land-based missiles, planes and submarines. For the Russians, this is an economic issue. They simply can't afford to maintain their old Cold War arsenal, and by advocating deeper cuts they can claim the moral high ground. Meanwhile, the Russians got an ally today in opposition to the Pentagon's planned national missile defense in the form of an MIT professor who claims data from an early test proves what critics have said all along, that the expensive system can be easily fooled by simple decoys such as mylar balloons that can confuse interceptors in space and even hide a real warhead inside. Pentagon says it wouldn't be spending $30 billion if they thought that was the case. Officials announced that the next test will be delayed by two weeks, but should still be done in time to recommend by the fall to the president whether to start building the system -- Bernie.</s>SHAW: Thank you, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.
Russian Duma's Approval of START II Treaty Puts Pressure on U.S. to Make Next Critical Move