The U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program eliminated four ICBMs and upgraded security at a nuclear weapons storage facility last month, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) announced yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 21).
Each of the SS-19 missiles could have delivered as many as six warheads farther than 6,200 miles, according to a Lugar release.
The Nunn-Lugar program also continued supporting construction of the Russian chemical weapons disposal facility at Shchuchye.
Since being established in 1991 to secure and eliminate weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union, the initiative has deactivated 7,298 strategic nuclear warheads and destroyed 728 ICBMs, 496 ICBM silos, 137 mobile ICBM launchers, 631 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 456 SLBM launchers, 31 ballistic missile-capable submarines, 155 strategic bombers, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles and 194 nuclear test tunnels.
The program has also secured 411 nuclear weapon train shipments, increased security at 18 nuclear weapon storage facilities and built 16 biological agent monitoring stations. It removed all nuclear weapons from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, nations that once respectively held the world's third-, fourth- and eighth-largest nuclear arsenals.
By sponsoring the International Science and Technology Centers, the Nunn-Lugar program has helped to provide civilian opportunities for 58,000 former weapons scientists. The International Proliferation Prevention Program has involved 14,000 former weapons personnel in 750 projects and established 580 technology-sector positions (U.S. Senator Richard Lugar release, Nov. 19).