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Counting Rules Under START and Treaty of Moscow (SORT)

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by John Isaacs [contact information]

March 10, 2009

START COUNTING RULES

Deployed strategic delivery vehicles and accountable warheads (number based on the capacity of the delivery systems).

The ceilings are:

Specifically:

Under the terms of the START I treaty the main unit of account is the launcher: the missile silo, mobile launcher, or bomber. Even after a missile is removed from the silo, that silo still counts as a launcher for the type of missile for which it was designed, and is included in the MOU data. For START I purposes both the missile and the warheads it carries will continue to be counted until the silo is destroyed, the destroyed silo has been inspected, and a 90 day period has elapsed. (See “Russia: START I Counting Rules,” Nuclear Threat Initiative, February 1999).

PROBLEM: “The U.S. now counts 5,951 units under the “warheads” category of the START; applying the SORT understanding, however, there would be only 2,900 units to be counted in that section.” (Edward Ifft, “Controlling Nuclear Weapons: Priorities for the Obama Administration,” Lecture at Georgetown University, January 22, 2008).

Expires December 5, 2009

TREATY OF MOSCOW (SORT) COUNTING RULES

Deployed, strategic weapons only

The ceilings are:

Unlike past strategic arms control agreements between Moscow and Washington, SORT does not specify which warheads are to be reduced or how reductions should be made. (See "Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty at a Glance,” Arms Control Today, September 2006).

There are differing interpretations of SORT commitments:

PROBLEM: “The U.S. wants to put conventional warheads on ICBMs and SLBMs [Prompt Global Strike] – Russia wants to count those as nuclear weapons.” (Edward Ifft, “Controlling Nuclear Weapons: Priorities for the Obama Administration,” Lecture at Georgetown University, January 22, 2008).

Expires December 31, 2012

John Isaacs 202-546-0795 ext. 2222 jdi@armscontrolcenter.org

John Isaacs is the Executive Director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation where his work focuses on national security issues in Congress, Iraq, missile defense, and nuclear weapons. Isaacs has published articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Christian Science Monitor, Nuclear Times, Arms Control Today, American Journal of Public Health, and Technology Review.