START Treaties

موضوع: START Treaties الإثنين يونيو 24, 2013 7:47 pm

No United States inspections of Russian nuclear facilities have taken place in a year, threatening our national security. The U.S. has not conducted a single on-the-ground inspection of a Russian nuclear facility since START expired on December 5, 2009. Without American inspectors verifying Russia’s nuclear weapons, our insight into Russia’s arsenal is limited and our national security is at risk. Inspections provide our military leaders with essential information about Russia’s strategic nuclear capabilities that is used to inform our own strategic posture. Satellite images and other intelligence gathering techniques are greatly bolstered by boots on the ground and physical inspections of the inside of Russian weapons. Opposing ratification of New START perpetuates our current strategic lack of transparency. Ratifying New START enables the U.S. to resume intrusive, on-site inspections and rebuild our understanding of Russia’s arsenal so that we can calibrate the posture of our own forces. Furthermore, verifying the security of nuclear materials safeguards against theft and prevents terrorists from acquiring nuclear capabilities.

The New START Treaty Will Not Constrain Missile Defense.

Assertionsthat New START limits U.S. missile defense capabilities are false. Numerous Pentagon officials and arms control experts have attested to that fact, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, and Missile Defense Agency Director Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly.

Our military leaders have said that the prohibition in Article V of the Treaty preventing the conversion of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers into missile defense launchers is not relevant to either current or future U.S. missile defense plans. Other than the 5 converted ICBM silos at Vandenberg Air Force Base that were grandfathered into the treaty, the Defense Department has no plans to convert any additional silos. As then-U.S. National Security Advisor James Jones wrote in April, “It’s a limit in theory, but not in reality.” It is far more cost effective to simply dig a new hole for a missile interceptor silo than convert an existing silo, and the Treaty in no way affects new construction of silos for missile defense purposes. Our military and civilian leaders have also stated that neither the language in the preamble referencing the inter-relationship between strategic offensive and defensive forces nor the Russian unilateral statement place legally binding obligations upon the U.S.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee made it absolutely clear in the resolution of ratification that the Treaty would not constrain missile defense. Both Understanding #1 and Declarations #1 and #2 specifically address and reiterate the U.S. commitment to developing and deploying missile defenses. The Committee’s resolution goes to great lengths to reaffirm and further clarify that the Treaty’s preamble and Russia’s unilateral statement impose no limits on our ability to develop and deploy missile defenses. A provision similar to the preamble existed in the original START document. Moreover, Declaration #1 underscores current U.S. policy by restating language in the 1999 Missile Defense Act mandating the implementation of a national missile defense system “as soon as technologically possible.”

موضوع: رد: START Treaties الإثنين يونيو 24, 2013 7:48 pm

What do you think

عدد المساهمات : 220 تاريخ التسجيل : 23/06/2013

I really like it

موضوع: رد: START Treaties السبت يوليو 06, 2013 2:21 pm

Glad to hear that

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