Global Security Newswire

The U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program last month destroyed three ICBMs and three submarine-launched ballistic missiles from the former Soviet Union, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) announced (see GSN, Jan. 23).

The program, established in 1991 to secure and eliminate former Soviet weapons of mass destruction, also placed three train loads of nuclear weapons in secure storage and finished building and equipping a biological monitoring station in Kazakhstan.

A total of 13 stations for detection of infectious disease outbreaks have been built to date -- one in Azerbaijan, two in Kazakhstan, four in Georgia and six in Uzbekistan.

The United States last month also transported samples of bubonic and pneumonic plague from Kazakhstan to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention facility in Colorado (see GSN, Jan. 17).

Since its inception, the Nunn-Lugar program has deactivated 7,260 nuclear warheads, destroyed 674 ICBMs and 623 SLBMs, scrapped 30 ballistic missile submarines and 155 bombers, secured 377 train loads of nuclear weapons, and boosted security at 16 nuclear weapons storage facilities, among other accomplishments.

It has helped remove all nuclear weapons from Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan and has supported engagement of tens of thousands of weapons scientists and institutions in civilian research (U.S. Senator Richard Lugar release, Feb. 25).