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Historical Documents
On-Site Inspections Under the Intermediate-range Nuclear
Forces Treaty
| Elimination
Schedules |
The scheduling of
missile eliminations was at the discretion, within
the time lines prescribed in the treaty, of the respective
governments. No missiles, launchers, or support equipment
could be eliminated unless an inspection team was
present to record and report on the destruction. The
most significant of the treaty schedules were those
mandating the elimination of the shorter-range missiles
within 18 months and of the intermediate-range missiles
in three years. Another important treaty provision
addressed the unique INF problem of both parties'
maintaining operational parity in the number of warheads.
The SS-20 missile had three reentry vehicles, the
Pershing II, one. To achieve parity in the final elimination
months, treaty negotiators included a provision that,
no later than the 29th treaty month, the number of
deployed intermediate-range missile launchers should
not exceed the number of launchers capable of carrying
missiles with 171 warheads. This meant that the Soviet
Union had to eliminate sufficient SS-20 missile launchers
so that at the beginning of the 29th treaty month
no more than 57 of the three-warheaded SS-20 missiles
remained deployed.4
All INF missiles, launchers,
and support equipment had to be eliminated in accordance
with the treaty's protocol on eliminations. Here,
Soviet soldiers are cutting the aft section, trunion
block, of an SS-20 missile transporter-erector-launcher
vehicle at the Sarny Elimination Facility, USSR.
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| Rate
of INF Missile Eliminations: 1988-1989
Note: Difference in
percentages reflect two treaty disparities: the USSR
had more shorter range missiles (SS-23, SS-12) which
had to be destroyed within 18 months, and the Soviet
SS-20 had 3-warheads per missile.
Another treaty requirement involved the time period
for either party to exercise its right to destroy up
to 100 of its missiles by launching them to destruction.
The period was six months following entry into force.
The Soviet Union exercised this treaty right; the United
States did not. Within the first six months the Soviets
launched 72 SS-20 missiles from Chita and Kansk. All
of these launches were observed by American on-site
inspection teams.5
For all scheduled eliminations of
the INF missiles, launchers, and associated equipment,
the treaty required that the inspecting party be notified
30 days in advance. This official notification was
to contain the name and coordinates of the elimination
facility and an estimated date for beginning the eliminations.
Because the actual process had to be observed by on-site
inspectors, the date became, in effect, the arrival
date of the inspection team. The notification also
contained an estimated date of completion. For its
part, the inspecting party had to provide the inspected
party with a 72-hour notice before arriving in the
country. Once there, the inspectors would travel to
the elimination site under escort and would remain
there until the eliminations were completed. |
| Record of INF
Eliminations |
The purpose of the
on-site elimination inspections was clearly defined
in the treaty. Article 10, Paragraph 2, stated that
"verification" by "on-site inspection"
of the elimination of missile systems specified in
the Protocol on Eliminations "shall be conducted"
in accordance with the treaty and its protocols. The
missile systems specified in that protocol included
INF missiles, missile stages, front sections, launch
canisters, launchers, missile transporter vehicles,
missile erectors, launch stands, support structures,
and propellant tanks.
Rate of INF Missile Eliminations: 1990-1991
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