New START – Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
Consensus for American Security – Non-Partisan Information from National Security Experts
New START is an agreement between the U.S. and the Russian Federation on the reduction, stabilization and verification of strategic nuclear weapons.
It builds on the 1991 original START Treaty – conceived by President Reagan.
The New START Treaty allows the US to bolster its national security by allowing our military to plan and defeat the threats we face in the 21st Century – while verifiably reducing our old cold-war weapons.
This limit is 74% lower than the limit of the 1991 START Treaty and 30% lower than the deployed strategic warhead limit of the 2002 Moscow Treaty.
Unlike the Moscow Treaty, the New Start Treaty has a significant verification regime – allowing our military to plan our forces safely and predictably to what we face.
The Treaty is a modest agreement to reduce strategic weapons but allows the U.S. to restart a verification regime – which ended on 5 December 2009.
The Treaty does not include tactical nuclear weapons, it does not include many issues that we also need to take forward –because it’s all about the most powerful elements of the nuclear arsenal: strategic nuclear weapons.
The limits in the new treaty are for 1,550 warheads. Warheads on deployed ICBMs and deployed SLBMs count toward this limit and each deployed heavy bomber equipped for nuclear armaments counts as one warhead toward this limit. Neither side can have more than 700 deployed systems or 800 deployed or non-deployed.
“We all know that arms control treaties and any treaties are not perfect, they are imperfect documents, they are imperfect institutions and structures. But what motivates the treaty itself and why it is important that we have these kinds of structures and institutions to work within is because they do allow us to work within a framework of responsible, in this case, arms reduction.”
Senator Chuck Hagel, July 19 2010
Take Aways
The New START Treaty allows the U.S. to plan its forces and respond to threats of the 21st Century.
The New START Treaty resumes verification and on site inspection as well as bolsters our intelligence.
Without New START the military will have to devote resources to old cold war threats, instead of what we need for the 21st Century.
About the Consensus for American Security: the Consensus for American Security is a non-partisan group of influential military and national security leaders who have come together to highlight growing support for a new and sustainable nuclear weapons policy. The Consensus’s work is supported by the American Security Project
