The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program
ICBMs | Typhoon Submarines | Blackjack Bombers | Biological Weapons
Chemical Weapons | Nunn-Lugar Expansion | Conclusion
The sudden breakup of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991 created the greatest threat the world has faced in the nuclear age from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. For the past fifteen years, the Nunn-Lugar program has established a cooperative framework from which the United States, former Soviet Republics and other countries have successfully reduced the global threats from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Since its inception in 1991, the Nunn-Lugar program has deactivated 7,191 nuclear warheads, destroyed 662 ballistic missiles, 485 missile silos, 155 strategic bombers, 615 submarine launched missiles, 456 submarine missile launchers, and 30 strategic missile submarines, and it has sealed 194 nuclear test tunnels. In addition, more than 20,000 scientists formerly employed in weapons of mass destruction programs are now employed in peaceful research efforts. This has been accomplished at a cost of less than two-tenths of one percent of the annual U.S. defense budget.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan became the third, fourth and eight largest nuclear powers in the world, respectively. Today, because of Nunn-Lugar, all three countries are nuclear-weapons free. To help put Nunn-Lugar's success into perspective, the program has dismantled more nuclear weaponry than Great Britain, France and China currently possess combined.
ICBMS (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)
Through the Nunn-Lugar program, U.S. contractors remove intercontinental ballistic missiles from their launch silos and transport them to a large dismantlement facility built by an American company in Surovatika. Explosives then eliminate the missile silos and their support facilities. The disarmament commitments met by Russia, first under the START Treaty and now under the Moscow Treaty, are essential to neutralize the WMD race.
The facility at Surovatika dismantles four to five missiles per month, including the SS-18 Satan missile, the largest missile in the Soviet arsenal. At more than 100 feet tall and carrying 10 independently targeted warheads with a range of 7,000 miles, the Satan was designed to attack and destroy American missiles and silos. Each of the ten warheads is capable of destroying an American city the size of Indianapolis. By the 2012, the Nunn-Lugar program hopes to destroy over 1,000 ICBMs and more than 500 missile silos.
Typhoon Submarines
During visits to Russian shipyards and submarine bases, the enormity of dismantling nuclear missile submarines such as the Typhoon missile submarines is clear. The Typhoon, the world's largest submarine and one of the most feared weapons of the Cold War, prowled the waters of the North Atlantic off America's eastern seaboard and carried missiles with a range of 5,000 miles. Each of these submarines has the capability of carrying twenty long-range ballistic missiles, each submarine can carry up to 200 nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the United States.
The Typhoon fleet was based north of Murmansk on the Barents Sea inside the Arctic Circle. The second Typhoon slated for dismantlement has been towed from its home port to the dismantlement site at the formerly top-secret submarine base at SevMash near Archangel and its destruction is underway. Each submarine had its missiles removed and sent to Surovatika for dismantlement. Then the missile launchers are cut out of the submarine and laid out in the open for an extended period of time for verification by American satellites. Shipyard workers subsequently cut the submarine into pieces with acetylene torches. Eventually, the Typhoon becomes nothing more than scrap.
Blackjack Bombers
During Senator Lugar's visits to Russia, he has witnessed the dismantling of former Soviet bombers, including a Blackjack bomber, by American contractors. The Blackjack is similar to the American B-1 bomber and capable of delivering 24 nuclear-armed cruise missiles. In addition to the bombers, the program eliminates nuclear air-to-surface missiles carried by the bombers.
After extraneous equipment is removed from the bombers and missiles, they are defueled, neutralized, and eliminated. The elimination process includes cutting the wings, tail and nose off each bomber to ensure that they are never again used for military purposes. Senator Lugar has observed this work personally and has joined with Raytheon employees in touring their dismantlement facilities in Russia and the Ukraine.
Biological Weapons and the Pokrov Facility
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the discovery of a vast, advanced biological weapons (BW) research and production program heightened concerns about the proliferation of pathogens and biological terrorism. Deadly bacteriological and viral agents were found in unlocked rooms, within refrigeration units protected only by wax-and-string seals. Newly unemployed biological scientists were left to consider selling their bioweapons knowledge and expertise to the highest bidder. Nunn-Lugar has addressed bioweapons proliferation by instituting comprehensive biosafety and biosecurity systems at over 100 bioresearch facilities. The program is currently working to consolidate strain libraries and prevent the theft of pathogens by both outsiders and insiders.
The Pokrov biologics factory is an excellent case in point. Pokrov was one of the Soviet Union's main wartime mobilization production and weaponization factories for viral biological weapons, including smallpox. Today, Pokrov is under the control of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and produces vaccines for animal diseases, but it still retains the capability to produce large amounts of dangerous pathogens in a short time.
Many ask why such facility is a potential proliferation threat and the answer is that Pokrov has the ability to maintain, produce and store the agents it seeks to combat. In other words, Pokrov has the facilities and infrastructure necessary to produce the diseases it is dedicated to fighting. During Lugar's visit, he toured the strain collections, laboratories and bunkers built to withstand nuclear attacks. The facility's leadership was quite candid when it pointed out that, under various Cold War scenarios, Pokrov had a military role. Why else would a large portion of the production capacity be located in hardened bomb shelters? During the Cold War, the leadership claimed that the role was purely defensive.
Nunn-Lugar will provide security enhancements to ensure that the dangerous strains stored at Pokrov for vaccine research remain safe and secure and discussions are underway to "right size" production facilities. Nunn-Lugar will eliminate those elements of the production capabilities and storage capacity that do not have a legitimate role in the production of vaccines.
Chemical Weapons and Shuchuchye
The vast Russian stockpile of deadly chemical nerve agents, stored in artillery shells within deteriorating, insecure facilities remain one of the most frightening proliferation threats facing the world today. These easily transportable shells, capable of fitting within a briefcase, can hold enough gas to kill thousands of people. Through Nunn-Lugar, the United States is assisting Russia with the construction of a chemical weapons (CW) destruction facility at Shchuchye (pronounced schoo-chya) to eliminate this threat to global security.
Senator Lugar has visited Shchuchye several times and remains convinced that the weapons stored there must be dismantled quickly and safely. Nearly 2 million artillery shells and SCUD missile warheads filled with sarin, soman, and VX are stored in 14 wooden warehouses. Many of the warheads stored there are small and easily portable.
In August 2003, Senator Lugar visited the testing location of the technology designed to remove the nerve gas from warheads and convert sarin, soman and VX to inert bitumen. The equipment designed there will drain each of the warheads stored at Shchuchye. Inside sealed machines holding 2 to 7 shells at a time (depending on the size of the shell), holes are drilled in the shells and the deadly agent is drained out. The chemicals are then neutralized into tar.
As a result of the Nonproliferation Strategy Review the Administration undertook in 2001, President Bush called on the Department of Defense to accelerate work at Shchuchye. Senator Lugar has discussed this issued with the President on several occasions, and each time he has expressed his strong support and directed his national security team to assist in resolving bureaucratic and legislative obstacles.
It is clear that our efforts to protect the United States from weapons of mass destruction entail risks, but the greater risk is to do nothing to address this clear and present danger associated with the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons arsenals of the former Soviet Union.
Nunn-Lugar Expansion
The continuing experience of Nunn-Lugar has created a tremendous nonproliferation asset for the United States and the world. The United States has an impressive cadre of talented scientists, technicians, negotiators and managers working for the Defense Department and for associated defense contractors who understand how to implement nonproliferation programs and how to respond to proliferation emergencies.
On February 11, 2004, in a major address on the campus of the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, President Bush expressed his strong continued support for the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.
The President praised Senator Lugar's efforts to address the threat posed by the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and materials. He said, "Under this program, we're helping former Soviet states find productive employment for former weapons scientists. We're dismantling, destroying and securing weapons and materials left over from the Soviet weapons of mass destruction arsenal. We have more work to do there... We should expand this cooperation elsewhere in the world... in countries like Iraq and Libya."
As President Bush urged in his speech, Congress approved legislation Senator Lugar authored in 2003 permitting the Nunn-Lugar program to address proliferation threats outside the former Soviet Union. This new authority to go beyond the boundaries of the former Soviet Union will permit and facilitate the use of Nunn-Lugar expertise and resources when other nonproliferation threats around the world are identified.
The precise replication of the Nunn-Lugar program will not be possible everywhere. Clearly, many states will continue to avoid accountability for programs related to weapons of mass destruction. When nations resist such accountability, other options must be explored. When governments continue to contribute to the WMD threat facing the United States, we must be prepared to apply diplomatic and economic pressure, as well as military force.
Yet we should not assume that we cannot forge cooperative nonproliferation programs with some critical nations. The experience of the Nunn-Lugar program in Russia has demonstrated that the threat of weapons of mass destruction can lead to extraordinary outcomes based on mutual interest. No one would have predicted in the 1980s that American contractors and Department of Defense officials would be on the ground in Russia destroying thousands of strategic systems. If we are to protect ourselves during this incredibly dangerous period, we must create new nonproliferation partners and aggressively pursue any nonproliferation opportunities that appear. Nunn-Lugar expansion authority is the first step down that road. Ultimately, a satisfactory level of accountability, transparency and safety must be established in every nation with a WMD program.
There are always risks when expanding a successful venture into new areas, but we do not have a choice. We must give the Administration the ability to interdict and neutralize the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This new venture, like its predecessor, will take time to organize and establish operating procedures, but Lugar is hopeful that a decade from now, we will look back on this effort and marvel at the successes we have enjoyed.
In 2004, Nunn-Lugar funds were used for the first time outside of the former Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons in the mountains of Albania. Senator Lugar initially traveled to Albania in August 2004 to meet with government leaders about the destruction of chemical weapons. Senator Lugar followed up with a visit in August 2006 to review the progress.
Conclusion
We have a window of opportunity to reduce the threat of former Soviet weapons of mass destruction. Historically, no great power has ever possessed such an opportunity to work with a former adversary in removing the threat that confronts both of them.
As we seek to take full advantage of available opportunities in Russia, the expanded authority to use Nunn-Lugar funds outside the former Soviet Union helps address shortcomings in the ability of the United States to respond to emergencies involving the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This Nunn-Lugar expansion will allow the United States to respond to new national security challenges and opportunities, such as Libya, through a proven program. With terrorists actively seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction, the importance of a new tool to secure and destroy such weapons globally should be apparent to all.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and sobering evidence that terrorists have been working hard to acquire weapons of mass destruction, the Nunn-Lugar principles are all the more critical to the safety of the world.
We must use this cooperative framework to build a global coalition against catastrophic terrorism. Every nation that has weapons and materials of mass destruction must account for what it has, spend its own money or obtain international technical and financial resources to safely secure what it has, and pledge that no other nation, cell or cause will be allowed access or use these deadly tools of destruction.
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