News Media Resources: DTRA Fact Sheets - Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) Inspectable Sites in the Former Soviet Union
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)
Inspection and Monitoring Sites in the United States
On July 31, 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Washington, D.C. START mandated substantial reductions in the number of strategic ballistic missiles and heavy bombers and their attributed nuclear warheads.
The breakup of the Soviet Union in late 1991 delayed START's entry into force until Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, all of which had inherited strategic nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union, ratified START and joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as non-nuclear states. When START entered into force on Dec. 5, 1994, signatories began to implement the Treaty's complex set of intrusive inspection and verification measures. The Treaty provides for 12 types of inspections and exhibitions that may be used by each signatory in evaluating START compliance, as well as continuous monitoring at mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) final assembly facilities.
As part of START's verification provisions, each signatory was required to declare all facilities related to ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers. The United States has declared over two dozen START-inspectable sites. The complete list of U.S. START-inspectable sites appears below.
ICBM Related facilities
Camp Navajo , Flagstaff , AZ
Thiokol Corporation, Promontory, UT
F.E. Warren Air Force Base, WY
Hill Air Force Base, UT
Malmstrom Air Force Base, MT
Minot Air Force Base, N.D.
Vandenberg AFB, CA
Ellsworth Missile Complex, S.D.
Continuous monitoring site (ICBM production facilities)
START contains provisions that permit up to 30 monitors to conduct continuous portal and perimeter monitoring activities at one U.S. site and two former Soviet sites. Monitors are permitted to visually observe and physically measure all existing vehicles. The designated portal in the United States was the Thiokol Corporation Strategic Operations facility in Promontory, Utah. The former Soviet Union, however, never exercised its right to conduct monitoring operations at Thiokol. A year after the United States provided notification to the Russian Federation of cessation of Peacekeeper missile production, the Russian right to conduct portal monitoring in Promontory under the START treaty ended on April 27, 2001. As a result, there is not a Russian monitoring operation ongoing in the United States.
SLBM Related facilities
Naval Air Warfare Center , China Lake , CA
Tekoi Test Facility, Goshute Indian Reservation, UT
Trident Training Facility, Silverdale , WA
Trident Training Facility, King's Bay, GA
Strategic Weapons Facility-Atlantic, King's Bay, GA
Strategic Weapons Facility-Pacific, Silverdale , WA
The treaty also gives signatories the right to conduct suspect site inspections to confirm that covert assembly of mobile ICBMs or mobile ICBM first stages is not occurring. Both the United States and the Soviet Union included sites that would be subject to suspect site inspections in START's Memorandum of Understanding. In the United States, those suspect sites are:
Aerojet, Sacramento , CA
Hercules Plant #1, Magna , UT
Hill Air Force Base, UT
Thiokol Corporation, Promontory, UT
Points of entry
The treaty designates points of entry on each signatory's territory for foreign inspectors arriving to conduct START inspections at declared and undeclared sites. The points of entry in the United States are San Francisco, California, and Washington, D.C.
Agency Role
For reciprocal visits to U.S. START-related facilities by FSU inspectors, DTRA provides escort teams. The purpose of the escort team is to ensure the FSU inspectors are allowed to exercise all treaty rights while inspecting U.S. sites for verification of compliance. Each team will usually consist of 10 members: a team chief, a deputy team chief, two linguists, a weapons specialist, and additional experts. The treaty contains explicit procedures for the conduct of these inspections, as well as a complicated notification process for both sides.
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
DTRA safeguards America and its allies from weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosives) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat, and mitigate its effects. This Department of Defense combat support agency is located at Fort Belvoir, Va., and operates field offices worldwide.
