Sample Extraction from a Chemical Weapon Munition
ANSWER: The assistance provided under the CTR program is directed at reducing the threat to the United States, by destroying missiles and launchers designed for use against us. Our assistance does help these states carry out arms control agreements, as it reduces the threat to the United States. Our assistance, however, comes nowhere near to paying for the full costs of the dismantlement and elimination activities required under existing arms control agreements. Moreover, by helping with destruction and dismantlement, the CTR program provides assistance to accelerate the process of reaching agreed arms control levels earlier than called for in existing agreements.
ANSWER: By statute, in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine officers cannot be demobilized until they are provided with housing. Each of these states has indicated that its housing shortage is a major obstacle to eliminating the missiles and silos, closing the missile bases and demobilizing the officers who are an integral part of the nuclear weapons infrastructure of the former Soviet Union. Converting former Soviet defense plants to produce prefabricated housing for these officers or constructing housing for officers associated with SS-19 ICBMs and other weapons of mass destruction makes up less than 5% of the CTR program. However, threat reduction requires that we address the disposition of the officer corps just as we address the disposition of the other integral parts of an offensive missile threat. These CTR projects are part of the critical path for eliminating weapons in the former Soviet Union. Delay or termination of these projects will cause further delays in dismantlement of missile silos and launchers in these states and possibly frustrate our CTR goals.
ANSWER: The CTR program provides in-kind assistance and expertise to cut up, blow up, dig out and take apart weapons and systems which threaten the United States. Russia is entitled to build certain new weapons under existing arms control agreements to meet legitimate defensive needs, and in some cases, those improvements increase strategic stability. U.S. dismantlement assistance, however, does not support such modernization, and in fact, discourages continued production through the conversion of weapons industries to peaceful civilian production.
ANSWER: No. While Congress originally authorized $1.6 billion, $330 million of this authority expired before DoD could execute it. The program initially got off to a slow start as negotiations with the former Soviet states were conducted to reach agreement on the types of assistance they needed. The pace of implementing the CTR program increased dramatically over the past year as agreements were concluded. The Department has spent nearly $500 million, or almost 40 percent of the funds, available and progress continues in placing the remainder under contract.
ANSWER: The truth is that the CTR program never set out to dismantle warheads directly. According to the language of the Nunn-Lugar legislation, CTR assistance was intended to "facilitate on a priority basis the transportation, storage, safeguarding and destruction of nuclear and other weapons in the Soviet Union." Throughout early discussions, Russian officials consistently emphasized that Russia neither needed nor wanted a direct U.S. role in the warhead dismantlement process. Instead, various bottlenecks associated with transportation and storage deficiencies were identified and specific items of assistance are being provided to alleviate them. Russian officials have indicated that Russia has been dismantling warheads at a pace of about 2,000-3,000 per year.
To date, CTR has produced a number of measurable accomplishments: such as the return to Russia of over 1,000 warheads from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine and the deactivation of four regiments of SS-19 ICBMs in Ukraine.
Despite these achievements, criticism continues to focus on the failure to get inside Russian nuclear warhead dismantlement facilities. Accordingly, in February 1995 an Assistant Secretary of Defense responsible for CTR policy stated that "We are not dismantling nuclear warheads themselves" because the Russians have not accepted offers of help in that area, but "we are dismantling airplanes, missiles, silos, industries and submarines, all of which were designed to destroy the United States."
ANSWER: As the scope and funding of CTR increases, so does the volume of assistance, in the forms of goods and services delivered to the NIS. To this end, the legal regime governing assistance to each NIS recipient includes agreements that provide for the audit and examination (A&E) of these goods and services. Auditing and examining our assistance enables the United States to ensure that the items and services provided are being used for their intended purposes and that they are intact, secure, and satisfying the legislatively mandated goals of the CTR program.
Sample Extraction from a Chemical Weapon Munition
