Global Security Newswire

The U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program in November supported elimination of nine nuclear warheads and nine mobile ICBM launchers, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) announced on Tuesday (see GSN, Dec. 22, 2011).

The Nunn-Lugar program that month also supported disposal of three submarine-fired ballistic missiles and 98.36 metric tons of Russian chemical nerve agent, the lawmaker said in a press release. In addition, it facilitated the establishment of four biological agent monitoring sites and provided protection to five nuclear-weapon train shipments.

Since being established in 1991 to secure and eliminate weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet states, the CTR program has assisted in deactivation of 7,610 strategic nuclear warheads and destruction of 792 ICBMs, 498 ICBM silos, 191 mobile ICBM launchers, 677 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 492 SLBM launchers, 33 ballistic missile-capable submarines, 155 strategic bombers, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles and 194 nuclear test tunnels, according to the announcement.

The effort has also provided safeguards for 556 nuclear-weapon train shipments, boosted security at 24 nuclear weapons storage facilities and constructed 38 biological agent monitoring stations. It supported the removal of all nuclear weapons from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, nations that once respectively held the world's third-, fourth- and eighth-largest nuclear arsenals, Lugar's office said.

The Nunn-Lugar program aided the elimination of Albania's small stockpile of chemical warfare materials, its first effort outside the former Soviet Union. In total, 2,601.8 metric tons of Albanian and Russian chemical agents have been eliminated with assistance from the U.S. initiative (U.S. Senator Richard Lugar release, Feb. 7).