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Operations
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)
 The
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty entered into force on
December 5, 1994, culminating over 10 years of negotiations
between the United States, the former Soviet Union and
its successor states aimed at lowering the risk of nuclear
war. START is the first treaty to reduce strategic nuclear
forces.
 Signed on July 31, 1991, START mandated substantial reductions in the number of strategic ballistic missiles and heavy bombers and the nuclear warheads attributed to those delivery systems. Within seven years, the Soviet Union was required to destroy 30-40 percent of its strategic nuclear force and the U.S. was required to destroy about one third of its strategic nuclear force. The breakup of the Soviet Union delayed START's entry into force until Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, which had inherited strategic nuclear systems from the Soviet Union, ratified the Treaty and joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty as non-nuclear weapon states.
 The 900-page START treaty is the most complex arms control treaty to enter into force. It covers, among other things, reduction obligations and residual ceilings on strategic offensive arms, counting rules, data exchanges, conversion or elimination of weapons systems, notification requirements, cooperative verification measures, and detailed inspection rights, obligations and procedures. The Treaty provides for twelve types of inspections and exhibitions to collect information that may be used by each signatory in making compliance judgments.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is responsible for conducting U.S. inspections and monitoring operations at facilities in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Teams from those countries inspecting U.S. facilities are escorted by DTRA escort teams.
The inside of a B-52 bomb bay during a baseline inspection. |
Inspectors observing cut up B-52 bomber aircraft during an elimination inspection.
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Fact Sheets
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