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The New START Treaty is organized into three,
increasingly detailed, tiers. The first is the
12-page Treaty text itself. The second tier consists
of a 138-page Protocol to the Treaty, which contains
additional rights and obligations associated with
Treaty provisions. These two documents detail
the basic rights and obligations. The third tier
consists of Technical Annexes to the Protocol.
The Protocol to the Treaty defines the Treaty's
terminology and sets out procedures for observing
the Treaty and monitoring compliance.
Although the bulk of the document is aimed at
specialists, Part One entitled Terms and Their
Definitions is very interesting. In effect, this
is the only current legal set of terms regarding
strategic nuclear arms.
First, a few words about the term "ICBM
base." The new START treaty sets no limits
on the bases for land-mobile intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM) systems of the RT-2PM
Topol (SS-25 Sickle), RT-2UTTKh Topol-M (SS-27
Sickle B) and RS-24 Yars (SS-X-29) classes.
Under Article IV of the Treaty, each party can
only base deployed ICBM launchers at ICBM bases.
Under the Protocol, the term "ICBM base"
means: (a) for mobile ICBM launchers, an area
in which one or more basing areas and one associated
maintenance facility are located.
Unlike the START-I treaty, this definition says
nothing about the size of such an area, the number
of basing areas, or the number of ICBM launchers
which can be deployed simultaneously outside these
areas.
And now a few words about the definitions of
the nuclear triad's main elements.
The term "intercontinental ballistic missile"
or "ICBM" still means a land-based ballistic
missile with a range of at least 5,500 kilometers.
This is the shortest distance between Russian
territory and the continental United States, excluding
Alaska.
The term "heavy bomber" means a bomber
of any type that satisfies either of the following
criteria: (a) its range is greater than 8,000
kilometers; or (b) it is equipped for long-range
nuclear air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) with
a range in excess of 600 kilometers.
The bomber's 8,000-km range allows it to take
off from Russian territory, to hit a target on
US territory (or vice versa) and to return to
its home base with no more than one in-flight
refueling. This definition was first coined during
the initial Soviet-US strategic arms limitation
talks (SALT) in the 1970s.
At that time, the parties disagreed on the Tupolev
Tu-22M3 Backfire bomber which has a range of 7,000
km. The United States insisted that the bomber
be listed as a heavy bomber and agreed not to
consider it as such after the Soviet Union pledged
not to equip the Tu-22M3 with aerial refueling
systems and not to use it to launch ALCMs with
a range above 600 kilometers.
Under the Treaty, the term "submarine-launched
ballistic missile" or "SLBM" means
a ballistic missile with a range in excess of
600 kilometers of any type that is contained in,
or launched from, a submarine.
This reduction in missile range is absolutely
logical because concealed and maneuverable submarines
can approach the coast and acquire strategic capabilities
even when equipped with missiles having a shorter
range than ICBMs.
Although long-range cruise missiles have the
same capabilities, this and previous START treaties
give strategic-arms status to air-launched cruise
missiles alone. The deployment of sea-launched
cruise missiles (SLCMs) is currently limited by
a 1991 Soviet-U.S. agreement to remove all tactical
nuclear weapons from naval surface ships and submarines.
This definition covered Soviet S-10 Granat (SS-N-21
Sampson) and US BGM-109A Tomahawk nuclear-tipped
long-range cruise missiles.
Although conventional modern SLCMs can play an
important strategic role, numerous Russian proposals
on limiting this class of naval weapons have not
been supported to date.
(RIA Novosti)
The author is RIA
Novosti’s Military Affairs writer.
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