United States
Strategic Air Command
639 x B-52 with 1,278 gravity bombs, 547 Hound Dog SSMs, and 436 Quail Decoys
880 x B-47 with 880 gravity bombs
76 x B-58 with 76 bomb pods
30 x Atlas D in 5 PSI soft launchers (See Note I)
32 x Atlas E in 25 PSI coffin launchers
80 x Atlas F in 100 PSI silos
62 x Titan I
20 x Minuteman I (See Note II)
Totals: 1,595 bombers with 2,234 gravity bombs/pods, and 224 ICBMs.
NOTE: Atlas D was updated with command guidance, meaning an Atlas D squadron could launch only one missile every five minutes.
NOTE II: With the establishment of DEFCON 2 on 24 October, by 25 October; SAC had 1,436 bombers, 145 ICBMs, and 916 tankers on alert. The first Minuteman went on Alert duty on 27 October, and three days later nine were on alert.
CONAD
1,044 aircraft in air defense duties.
On 26 October they broke down as:
598 on 5-15 minute alert
446 on 1-3 hour alert
Florda CONAD force was 154 aircraft on:
26 on 5 minute alert
35 on 15 minute alert
55 on 1-3 hour alert
4 to 11 aircraft were airborne continuously around the Florida Penisula.
US Submarine Fleet
5 x George Washington SSBNs with 80 Polaris A-1 with 600 kt warhead and 1,200 nm range.
1 x Ethan Allen SSBN with 16 Polaris A-1 with 600 kt warhead and 1,200 nm range.
Total: 96 SLBMs on 6 boats (all nuclear powered)
NOTE: Polaris A-2 with a 1,500 nm range became operational on 26 June 1962; but I have no information on how many boats had A-2 during the Cuban Crisis.
Additionally, the Polaris A1 had a reliability rate of around 50% or less; and the early W47 Y1 warhead on the Polaris A1 and A2, due to a faulty mechanical safing device design was estimated to have about a 50/50 chance of initating or not. When it was tested in a series of shots in 1966; the W47 Y2 had a dud rate of 3 out of four shots. It wasn't until the W47 Y3 mod was introduced in 1967 that the W47 became reliable.
So basically, out of the 96 SLBMs the US had deployed; only about 48 will successfully fire; and of that 48; only 24 will actually initate over Soviet Targets.
Soviet Union
Long Range Aviation
58 x 3M BISON-Bs with 116 gravity bombs
45 Tu-95 BEAR-As with 90 gravity bombs
57 Tu-95K BEAR-Bs with 57 Kh-20 SSMs with range of 205 to 325 nm.
Totals: 160 bombers with 206 gravity bombs and 57 KH-20s
NOTE: Arming Tu-95K with Kh-20 requires between 4 and 22 hours.
Soviet Submarine Fleet
6 x Pr V-611 ZULU IV/V SSB with 12 R-11FM (2 each boat), 10 kt or 500 kt warhead; 80 nm range.
3 x Pr 629 GOLF SSB with 9 R-11FM (3 each boat), 10 kt or 500 kt warhead; 80 nm range.
19 x Pr 629 GOLF SSB with 57 R-13 (3 each boat), 1 MT warhead; 325 nm range
1 x Pr 629B GOLF SSB with 2 R-21 (2 each boat) 1 MT or 800 kt warhead; 755 nm range
8 x Pr 658 HOTEL SSB with 24 R-11M (3 each boat), 10 kt or 500 kt warhead; 80 nm range.
Totals: 104 SLBMs on 37 boats
Ballistic Missiles
6 x R-7/R-7A with 5 or 3 MT warhead, 4,320 nm (R-7) or 6,480 nm (R-7A) range
32 x R-16 with 5, 3 or 6 MT warhead; 5,940 to 7,020 nm range
Totals: 38 ICBMs.
The US Plan to Hit Cuba
Basically, OPLAN 316 was set to go off on October 29th, if nobody negotated an end to the crisis.
The plan was to launch three massive airstrikes a day until Cuban air capacity was obliterated. The first strike was to involve 576 sorties. The second and third strikes for the first day brought the total sorties up to 1,190.
By 26 October, CINCAFLANT had 579 aircraft in his attack force.
The first air strikes would hit the five missile launch sites, and 24 SA-2 sites by F-100s and F-105s; with F-104s flying MiG CAP.
USN and USMC aircraft would begin bombing the landing beaches and nearby objectives in western Cuba, near Tarana.
While this was all going on, the 82nd and 101st Airborne would parachute in onto the following targets, with each target being hit by at least a regiment:
Jos Marti airfield (near Havana)
Los Banos airfield
Mariel naval air station
Baracoa Airfield
As a final bonus, the Marine garrison at Gitmo would have assaulted out of it's perimeter, after being reinforced via MATS with 3,500 extra Marines.
The Really, Really, Really FINAL US Plan to Hit Cuba
The USS Enterprise and Independence both had about 40~ nuclear devices in their magazines; but the cores for them were carried on cruisers accompanying the carriers; the plan was to transfer them to the CVs via helicopter; and in tests, the first bombs could be ready in 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, SAC had plans to destroy the SS-4 and SS-5 missile sites in case conventional bombardment didn't destroy them. In keeping with Curtis LeMay and Tommy Powers' ideas, the amount of force planned was truly massive; six B-47s each carrying two 10 to 20 megaton gravity bombs, were programmed to strike the missile sites, and not coincidentally, blow most of Cuba off the map, literally.
Local Forces near Cuba
US Forces
180 Ships
1,000 Land Based Aircraft
40,000 Marines
14,500 US Army Paratroops (82nd and 101st)
100,000 US Army Troops
Among which:
CTG 136.2
USS Essex (CVS-9)
---22 x S2F (2 squadrons of it)
---14 x HSS-2s
---1 x WF-2
Blandy (DD 943)
Keppler (DD 765)
Sperry (DD 697)
Barry (DD 933)
Cuban Forces
270,000 Cuban Army Troops
160~ T-34/T-54 tanks
60 x MiG-17s and -19s
700+ AA Guns
Group of Soviet Forces in Cuba:
74th Independent Motorized Rifle Regiment (OMSP) - San Cristobal and Guanajay area
----3 x Motorized Rifle Battalions
----1 x Tank Battalion (31 x T-55s or T-34-85s)
----6 x 122mm Howitzers, 10 x 100mm SP Guns, 9 x 120mm Mortars
----1 x Battalion of Lunas (2 x Launchers, 8 to 12 missiles with "special" warheads, and 102 men)
43rd Independent Motorized Rifle Regiment (OMSP) - vicinity of Santiago de las Vegas
----3 x Motorized Rifle Battalions
----1 x Tank Battalion (31 x T-55s or T-34-85s)
----6 x 122mm Howitzers, 10 x 100mm SP Guns, 9 x 120mm Mortars
----1 x Battalion of Lunas (2 x Launchers, 8 to 12 missiles each with "special" warheads, and 102 men)
146th Independent Motorized Rifle Regiment (OMSP) - Camajuani, Placetas, Sulu
----3 x Motorized Rifle Battalions
----1 x Tank Battalion (31 x T-55s or T-34-85s)
----6 x 122mm Howitzers, 10 x 100mm SP Guns, 9 x 120mm Mortars
----1 x Battalion of Lunas (2 x Launchers, 8 to 12 missiles each with "special" warheads, and 102 men)
106th Independent Motorized Rifle Regiment (OMSP) - vicinity of Holguin
----3 x Rifle Battalions
----1 x Tank Battalion (31 x T-55s or T-34-85s)
12th PVO Division (72 SA-2 Launchers plus 288 missiles) - Western Cuba
27th PVO Division (72 SA-2 Launchers plus 288 missiles) - Eastern Cuba
32nd Fighter Aviation Regiment (42 x MiG 21F-13 FISHBED Cs)
36 x Il-28 Beagles (Conventionally armed)
6 x Il-28 Beagles (Nuclear Armed; provided with six 407N devices - 12 kt)
Missile Division
----539th Missile Regiment (8 x SS-4) - West Cuba
----546th Missile Regiment (8 x SS-4) - West Cuba
----564th Missile Regiment (8 x SS-5) - West Cuba
----514th Missile Regiment (8 x SS-4) - Central Cuba
----657th Missile Regiment (8 x SS-5) - Central Cuba
231st Independent Aviation Engineering Regiment (OAIP) - Western Cuba
(8 Launchers and 40 x 4K87 Sopka (SSC-2a) Tactical Cruise Missiles - 90 mile range, 12 kt warhead)
222nd Independent Aviation Engineering Regiment (OAIP) - Eastern Cuba
(8 Launchers and 40 x 4K87 Sopka (SSC-2a) Tactical Cruise Missiles - 90 mile range, 12 kt warhead)
12 x Komar Missile Boats
Sources
DEFCON 2 by Norman Polmar
Strategic Air Command: People, Aircraft, and Missiles (2nd Edition) by Norman Polmar and Timothy M. Laur, 1990
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces by Oleg Bukharin, Pavel Podvig, Frank Von Hippel, Timur Kadyshev, Eugene Miasnikov, Igor Sutyagin, Maxim Tarasenko, Boris Zhelezov
The Air Force Response to the Cuban Crisis USAF Historical Division, Declassified.
The Big Book of Warfare by Ryan Crierie
