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In Focus: NTI Website Resources on New START
updated June 16, 2010
Treaty Status
Signed: 8 April 2010
Entered into force: ----
Duration: 10 year duration with option to extend for no more than 5 years
Parties: United States, Russian Federation
Treaty Summary
On 8 April 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a new Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (New START) in Prague. New START is a successor to the START I agreement, which expired on 5 December 2009.
President Obama submitted the Treaty to the U.S. Senate for ratification on 13 May 2010 and with President Medvedev issued a joint statement declaring the early ratification of the Treaty a priority for both Parties.
The New START Treaty is composed of three tiers of increasing levels of detail: the Treaty text, the Protocol to the Treaty, and the Technical Annexes. All three tiers will be legally binding. The Treaty Text and Protocol contain the basic rights and obligations of the Treaty. The Treaty also includes a standard withdrawal clause that states each Party has the right to withdraw from this Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events related to the subject matter of the Treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests. Upon entry into force of the New START Treaty, the 2002 Moscow Treaty will be terminated.
Treaty Obligations
The aggregate limits of the Treaty restrict the United States and Russia to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads each. Warheads actually deployed on ICBMs and SLBMs count toward this limit while each deployed heavy bomber equipped for nuclear armaments counts as one warhead. The Treaty also includes an aggregate limit of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments. Within that limit, the number of deployed ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers cannot exceed 700. The United States and Russia must implement the necessary reductions to reach these limits no later than seven years after the Treaty's entry into force. Within the aggregate limits, each State has the flexibility to determine the structure of its strategic forces. The Treaty does not place any constraints on the testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs or U.S. long-range conventional strike capabilities. In order to promote the objectives and implementation of the Treaty's provisions, the Parties will establish the Bilateral Consultative Commission, which will meet no less than twice a year in Geneva.
This material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently
verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2010 by MIIS.
