02 February 2005
Congressional Report, February 2: Weapons Reduction Program
Nunn-Lugar program deactivated 312 Russian nuclear warheads in 2004
The Nunn-Lugar program, designed to destroy weapons from the former Soviet Union, deactivated 312 Russian nuclear warheads in 2004, bringing the total number of weapons destroyed since the program began to 6,564, according to a report from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Senate Foreign Affairs Chairman Richard E. Lugar said in a prepared statement January 27 that in addition to the 312 warheads removed from Russian missile systems, the program last year also destroyed:
-- 41 SS-18 Satan missiles, each capable of delivering 10 warheads;
-- 22 missile silos housing SS-18 missiles;
-- 18 Backfire bombers in Ukraine, each capable of carrying three nuclear air-launched cruise missiles;
-- 93 long-range nuclear-capable air-launched cruise missiles that were carried by Bear and Blackjack bombers;
-- 81 submarine-launched nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in Russia that were carried aboard Typhoon, Delta III, and Delta IV submarines; and
-- Nine mobile intercontinental ballistic missile launchers.
The Nunn-Lugar program, created by Congress in 1991, is formally known as the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program and provides assistance for dismantling or safely storing the nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of the former Soviet arsenal. Designed to limit the threat of itinerant weaponry, Nunn-Lugar established a fund to pay for the identification, destruction and disposal of nuclear and chemical weapons. The initiative also welcomes former Soviet scientists to work in research initiatives not related to weapons, Lugar said.
The International Science and Technology Centers, of which the United States is the leading sponsor, have engaged 58,000 former weapons scientists in peaceful work, Lugar said. The International Proliferation Prevention Program has funded 750 projects involving 14,000 former weapons specialists and created some 580 new, peaceful, high-technology jobs, he said.
"Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan are nuclear weapons-free as a result of cooperative efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program," Lugar said.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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