The Washington Summit : A Pact ‘to Help Reduce the Risk of War’

Here are excerpts from the text of the treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the elimination of their intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles. Material in brackets is paraphrased:

The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, hereinafter referred to as the Parties,

Conscious that nuclear war would have devastating consequences for all mankind,

Guided by the objective of strengthening strategic stability,

Convinced that the measures set forth in this Treaty will help to reduce the risk of outbreak of war and strengthen international peace and security, and

Mindful of their obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,

Have agreed as follows:

Article I

In accordance with the provisions of this Treaty, which includes the Memorandum of Understanding and Protocols (governing elimination of missiles and verification by inspection) which form an integral part thereof, each Party shall eliminate its intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, not have such systems thereafter, and carry out the other obligations set forth in this Treaty.

Article II

(Formal definitions of “ground-launched ballistic missile (GLBM)” and “ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM)” and other technical terms used in the Treaty.)

Article III

1. For the purpose of this Treaty, existing types of intermediate-range missiles are (the U.S. Pershing-2 and the BGM-109G ground-launched cruise missile, and the Soviet SS-20, SS-4 and SS-5 missiles known by their Soviet designations respectively as RSD-10, R-12 and R-14.)

2. For the purposes of this Treaty, existing types of shorter-range missiles are (the U.S. Pershing 1A and the Soviet OTR-22 and OTR-23 missiles, known by their American designations as the SS-12 and SS-23.)

Article IV

1. Each Party shall eliminate all its intermediate-range missiles and launchers of such missiles (and related support structures and equipment) . . . so that no later than three years after entry into force of this Treaty and thereafter no such missiles, launchers, support structures or support equipment shall be possessed by either Party.

2. (Both Parties shall implement reductions in two phases so that:)

(A) by the end of the first phase, that is, no later than 29 months after entry into force of this Treaty:

(i) The number of deployed launchers of intermediate-range missiles for each Party shall not exceed the number . . . capable of carrying or containing at one time missiles considered by the Parties to carry 171 warheads;

(ii) The number of deployed intermediate-range missiles for each Party shall not exceed the number of such missiles considered by the Parties to carry 180 warheads;

(iii) The aggregate number of deployed and non-deployed launchers of intermediate-range missiles for each Party shall not exceed the number . . . capable of carrying or containing at one time missiles considered by the Parties to carry 200 warheads;

(iv) The aggregate number of deployed and non-deployed intermediate-range missiles for each Party shall not exceed the number of such missiles considered by the Parties to carry 200 warheads; and

(v) The ratio of the aggregate number of deployed and non-deployed intermediate-range GLBMs of existing types for each Party to the aggregate number of deployed and non-deployed intermediate-range missiles of existing types possessed by that Party shall not exceed the ratio of such intermediate-range GLBMs to such intermediate-range missiles for that Party as of Nov. 1, 1987, as set forth in the Memorandum of Understanding; and

(B) by the end of the second phase, that is, no later than three years after entry into force of this Treaty, all intermediate-range missiles of each Party, launchers of such missiles and all support structures and support equipment of the categories listed in the Memorandum and launchers, shall be eliminated.

Article V

1. Each Party shall eliminate (within 18 months) all its shorter-range missiles and launchers of such missiles, and all support equipment of the categories listed in the Memorandum of Understanding associated with such missiles and launchers. . . .

2. (The two Parties shall, within 90 days of entry into force of this Treaty, complete the removal of all deployed shorter-range missiles and deployed and non-deployed launchers of such missiles to elimination facilities and kept at these locations until they are eliminated in accordance with procedures set forth in the Protocol on Elimination. Shorter-range missiles not yet deployed are to be moved to elimination facilities within 12 months.)

3. (Shorter-range missiles and their launchers are to be kept at separate elimination sites, at least 1,000 kilometers, or 600 miles apart.)

Article VI

1. Upon entry into force of this Treaty and thereafter, neither Party shall:

(A) produce or flight test any intermediate-range missiles or produce any stages of such missiles or any launchers of such missiles; or

(B) produce, flight test or launch any shorter-range missiles or produce any stages of such missiles or any launchers of such missiles.

2. Notwithstanding paragraph 1 of this Article, each Party shall have the right to produce a type of GLBM not limited by this Treaty which uses a stage which is outwardly similar to, but not interchangeable with, a stage of an existing type of intermediate-range GLBM having more than one stage, providing that the Party does not produce any other stage which is outwardly similar to, but not interchangeable with, any other stage of an existing type of intermediate-range GLBM.

Article VII

For the purposes of this Treaty:

1. If a ballistic missile or a cruise missile has been flight tested or deployed for weapon delivery, all missiles of that type shall be considered to be weapon-delivery vehicles.

2. If a GLBM is an intermediate-range missile, all GLBMs or GLCMs of that type shall be considered to be intermediate-range missiles. If a GLBM or GLCM is a shorter-range missile, all GLBMs or GLCMs of that type shall be considered to be shorter-range missiles.

3. If a GLBM is of a type developed and tested solely to intercept and counter objects not located on the surface of the earth, it shall not be considered to be a missile to which the limitations of this Treaty apply.

4. The range capability of a GLBM not listed in Article III of this Treaty shall be considered to be the maximum range to which it has been tested (as defined by standard-mode flying until fuel exhaustion.) GLBMs or GLCMs that have a range capability equal to or in excess of 500 kilometers (300 miles) but not in excess of 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) shall be considered to be shorter-range missiles. GLBMs or GLCMs that have a range capability in excess of 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) but not in excess of 5,500 kilometers (3,000 miles) shall be considered to be intermediate-range missiles.

5. The maximum number of warheads an existing type of intermediate-range missile or shorter-range missile carries shall be considered to be the number listed for missiles of that type in the Memorandum of Understanding.

6. Each GLBM or GLCM shall be considered to carry the maximum number of warheads for a GLBM or GLCM of that type in the Memorandum of Understanding.

7. If a launcher has been tested for launching a GLBM or a GLCM, all launchers of that type shall be considered to have been tested for launching GLBMs or GLCMs.

8. If a launcher has contained or launched a particular type of GLBM or GLCM, all launchers of that type shall be considered to be launchers of that type of GLBM or GLCM.

9. The number of missiles each launcher of an existing type of intermediate-range missile or shorter-range missile shall be considered to be capable of carrying or containing at one time is the number listed for launchers of missiles of that type in the Memorandum of Understanding.

10. Except in the case of elimination in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Protocol on Elimination, the following shall apply:

(A) for GLBMs which are stored or moved in separate stages, the longest stage of an intermediate-range or shorter-range GLBM shall be counted as a complete missile;

(B) for GLBMs which are not stored or moved in separate stages, a canister of the type used in the launch of an intermediate-range GLBM, unless a Party proves to the satisfaction of the other Party that it does not contain such a missile, or an assembled intermediate-range or shorter-range GLBM, shall be counted as a complete missile; and

(C) for GLCMs, the airframe of an intermediate-range or shorter-range GLCM shall be counted as a complete missile.

11. A ballistic missile which is not a missile to be used in a ground-based mode shall not be considered to be a GLBM if it is test launched at a test site from a fixed land-based launcher which is used solely for test purposes and which is distinguishable from GLBM launchers. A cruise missile which is not a missile to be used in a ground-based mode shall not be considered to be a GLCM if it is test-launched at a test site from a fixed land-based launcher which is used solely for test purposes and which is distinguishable from GLCM launchers.

12. Each Party shall have the right to produce and use for booster systems, which might otherwise be considered to be intermediate-range or shorter-range missiles, only existing types of booster stages for such booster systems (under terms set forth in this article.)

Research and development launch sites shall not be subject to inspection pursuant to Article XI of this Treaty.

Article VIII

1 through 4. (All missiles encompassed by this Treaty are to be located in specified places such as missile deployment areas or support facilities. Transit of missiles and launchers subject to the Treaty is to be completed within 25 days of its entry into force.)

5. All deployment areas, missile operating bases and missile support facilities are specified in the Memorandum of Understanding or in subsequent updates of data. . . . Neither Party shall increase the number of, or change the location or boundaries of, deployment areas, missile operating bases or missile support facilities, except for elimination facilities, from those set forth in the Memorandum of Understanding. . . .

6. Beginning 30 days after entry into force of this Treaty, neither Party shall locate intermediate-range or short-range missiles, including stages of such missiles, or launchers of such missiles at missile production facilities, launcher production facilities or test ranges listed in the Memorandum or Understanding.

7. Neither Party shall locate any intermediate-range or shorter-range missiles at training facilities.

8. A non-deployed intermediate-range or shorter-range missile shall not be carried on or contained within a launcher of such a type of missile, except as required for maintenance conducted at repair facilities or for elimination by means of launching conducted at elimination facilities.

9. (Training missiles and launchers are subject to the same restrictions on location as apply to operational missiles or their components.)

Article IX

1. The Memorandum of Understanding contains categories of data relevant to obligations undertaken with regard to this Treaty and lists all intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, launchers of such missiles, and support structures and support equipment associated with such missiles and launchers, possessed by the Parties as of Nov. 1, 1987. Updates of that data and notifications required by this Article shall be provided according to the categories of data contained in the Memorandum of Understanding.

2 through 4. (Provisions for updating information in the Memorandum of Understanding, to be done through Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers established by the U.S.-Soviet agreement of Sept. 15, 1987.)

5. (A through D) (Detailed requirements for notifying the other Party of changes in elimination facilities, scheduled dates for elimination of missiles, missile stages and facilities, and, in the case of intermediate-range missiles, the location from which specific missiles to be eliminated have been removed. Requires at least 10 days’ notice of missile launches for purposes of eliminating missiles sets.)

(E) (Requires notification within 48 hours of any change in the number of missiles and related equipment, including details of date, location, movements of missiles, method of transport and itinerary of missiles in transit.)

6. (Requires 10 days’ notice prior to launching research and development boosters described in Article VII.)

Article X

1. Each Party shall eliminate its intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles and launchers of such missiles and support structures and support equipment associated with such missiles and launchers in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Protocol on Elimination.

2. Verification by on-site inspection of the elimination of items of missile systems specified in the Protocol on Elimination shall be carried out in accordance with Article XI of this Treaty, the Protocol on Elimination and the Protocol on Inspection.

3. When a Party removes its intermediate-range missiles, launchers of such missiles and support equipment associated with such missiles and launchers from deployment areas to elimination facilities for the purpose of their elimination, it shall do so in complete deployed organizational units. For the United States of America, these units shall be Pershing 2 batteries and BGM-109G flights. For the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, these units shall be SS-20 regiments composed of two or three battalions.

4. (Elimination of missiles, launchers and support equipment is to be carried out in accordance with Articles V and IX. Support structures are to be eliminated in place.)

5. Each Party shall have the right, during the first six months after entry into force of this Treaty, to eliminate by means of launching no more than 100 of its intermediate-range missiles.

6. (Missiles) which have been tested prior to entry into force of this Treaty, but never deployed, and which are not . . . listed in Article III of this Treaty, and launchers of such missiles, shall be eliminated within six months after entry into force of this Treaty (according to the Protocol on Elimination.)

(These are the U.S. Pershing 1B and the Soviet SSC-X-4, also known by its Soviet designation as the RK-55.)

7. and 8. (Definition of terms under which missiles and related equipment and facilities are to be considered as having been eliminated. Includes complete cessation of flight-testing, training, repair, storage or deployment of missiles in deployment areas.)

Such deployment areas, missile operating bases and missile support facilities shall be considered to be eliminated either when they have been inspected pursuant to paragraph 4 of Article XI of this Treaty or when 60 days have elapsed since the date of the scheduled elimination which was notified pursuant to paragraph 5(A) of Article IX of this Treaty. A deployment area, missile operating base of missile support facility listed in the Memorandum of Understanding that met the above conditions prior to entry into force of this Treaty, and is not included in the initial data exchange pursuant to paragraph 3 of Article IX of this Treaty, shall be considered to be eliminated.

9. If a Party intends to convert a missile operating base listed in the Memorandum of Understanding for use as a base associated with GLBM or GLCM systems not subject to this Treaty, then that Party shall notify the other Party, no less than 30 days in advance of the scheduled date of the initiation of the conversion, of the scheduled date and the purpose for which the base will be converted.

Article XI

1. and 2. For the purpose of ensuring verification of compliance with the provisions of this Treaty, each Party shall have the right to conduct on-site inspections (within the territory of the other Party and of basing countries.) The Parties shall implement on-site inspections in accordance with this Article, the Protocol on Inspection and the Protocol on Elimination.

3. Beginning 30 days after entry into force of this Treaty, each Party shall have the right to conduct inspections at all missile operating bases and missile support facilities specified in the Memorandum of Understanding other than missile production facilities, and at all elimination facilities included in the initial data update. . . . These inspections shall be completed no later than 90 days after entry into force of this Treaty. The purpose of these inspections shall be to verify the number of missiles, launchers, support structures and support equipment and other data, as of the date of entry into force of this Treaty, provided pursuant to paragraph 3 of Article IX of this Treaty.

4. Each Party shall have the right to conduct inspections to verify the elimination, notified pursuant to paragraph 5(A) of Article IX of this Treaty, of missile operating bases and missile support facilities other than missile production facilities, which are thus no longer subject to inspections pursuant to paragraph 5(A) of this Article. Such an inspection shall be carried out within 60 days after the scheduled date of the elimination of that facility. If a Party conducts an inspection at a particular facility pursuant to paragraph 3 of this Article after the scheduled date of the elimination of that facility, then no additional inspection of that facility pursuant to this paragraph shall be permitted.

5. Each Party shall have the right to conduct inspections pursuant to this paragraph for 13 years after entry into force of this Treaty. Each Party shall have the right to conduct 20 such inspections per calendar year during the first three years after entry into force of this Treaty, 15 such inspections per calendar year during the subsequent five years, and 10 such inspections per calendar year during the last five years. Neither Party shall use more than half of its total number of these inspections per calendar year within the territory of any one basing country. Each Party shall have the right to conduct:

(A) inspections, beginning 90 days after entry into force of this Treaty, of missile operating bases and missile support facilities other than elimination facilities and missile production facilities to ascertain . . . the numbers of missiles (and related equipment) located at each missile operating base or missile support facility at the time of the inspection; and

(B) inspections of former missile operating bases and former missile support facilities eliminated, (other than) former missile production facilities.

6. Beginning 30 days after entry into force of this Treaty, each Party shall have the right, for (the following) 13 years . . . to inspect by means of continuous monitoring:

(A) the portals of any facility of the other Party at which the final assembly of a GLBM using stages, any of which is outwardly similar to a stage of a solid-propellant GLBM listed in Article III of this Treaty, is accomplished; or

(B) if a Party has no such facility, the portals of an agreed former missile production facility at which existing types of intermediate-range or shorter-range GLBMs were produced.

The Party whose facility is to be inspected . . . shall ensure that the other Party is able to establish a permanent continuous monitoring system at that facility within six months after entry into force of this Treaty or within six months of initiation of the process of final assembly described in subparagraph (A). If, after the end of the second year after entry into force of this Treaty, neither Party conducts the process of final assembly described in subparagraph (A) for a period of 12 consecutive months, then neither Party shall have the right to inspect by means of continuous monitoring any missile production facility of the other Party unless the process of final assembly as described in subparagraph (A) is initiated again.

Upon entry into force of this Treaty, the facilities to be inspected by continuous monitoring shall be:

in accordance with subparagraph (B), for the United States of America, Hercules Plant No. 1, at Magna, Utah;

in accordance with subparagraph (A), for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, Udmurt Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

7. (Inspection of the elimination of missiles and support facilities, including the launching of intermediate-range missiles, is to be governed by Article X and the Protocol on Elimination.)

8. (Specifies sections of Protocol on Elimination relevant to inspections.)

Article XII

1. For the purpose of ensuring verification of compliance . . . each Party shall use national technical means of verification (a term, though not defined in the Treaty, that includes surveillance satellites) at its disposal in a manner consistent with generally recognized principles of international law.

2. Neither Party shall:

(A) interfere with national technical means of verification of the other Party operating in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article; or

(B) use concealment measures which impede verification of compliance with the provisions of this Treaty by national technical means of verification. . . . This obligation does not apply to cover or concealment practices, within a deployment area, associated with normal training, maintenance and operations, including the use of environmental shelters to protect missiles and launchers.

3. To enhance observation by national technical means of verification, each Party shall have the right until a Treaty between the Parties reducing and limiting strategic offensive arms enters into force, but in any event for no more than three years after entry into force of this Treaty, to request the implementation of cooperative measures at deployment bases for road-mobile GLBMs with a range capability in excess of 5,500 kilometers, which are not former missile operating bases eliminated pursuant to paragraph 8 of Article X of this Treaty. The Party making such a request shall inform the other Party of the deployment base at which cooperative measures shall be implemented. The Party whose base is to be observed shall carry out the following cooperative measures:

(A) no later than six hours after such a request, the Party shall have opened the roofs of all fixed structures for launchers located at the base, removed completely all missiles on launchers from such fixed structures for launchers and displayed such missiles on launchers in the open without using concealment measures; and

(B) the Party shall leave the roofs open and the missiles on launchers in place until 12 hours have elapsed from the time of the receipt of a request for such an observation.

Each Party shall have the right to make six such requests per calendar year. Only one deployment base shall be subject to these cooperative measures at any one time.

Article XIII

1. To promote the objectives and implementation of the provisions of this Treaty, the Parties hereby establish the Special Verification Commission (which will meet at either Party’s request so as to:)

(A) resolve questions relating to compliance (with Treaty obligations); and

(B) agree upon such measures as may be necessary to improve the viability and effectiveness of this Treaty.

2. The Parties shall use the Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers, which provide for continuous communication between the Parties, to (exchange data, provide notifications, receive requests for cooperative measures under the Treaty.)

Article XIV

The Parties shall comply with this Treaty and shall not assume any international obligations or undertakings which would conflict with its provisions.

Article XV

1. This Treaty shall be of unlimited duration.

2. Each Party shall, in exercising its national sovereignty, have the right to withdraw from the Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this Treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests. It shall give notice of its decision to withdraw to the other Party six months prior to withdrawal from this Treaty. Such notice shall include a statement of the extraordinary events the notifying Party regards as having jeopardized its supreme interests.

Article XVI

Each Party may propose amendments to this Treaty. Agreed amendments shall enter into force in accordance with the procedures set forth in Article XVII governing the entry into force of this Treaty.

Article XVII

1. This Treaty, including the Memorandum of Understanding and Protocols, which form an integral part thereof, shall be subject to ratification in accordance with the constitutional procedures of each Party. This Treaty shall enter into force on the date of the exchange of instruments of ratification.

2. This Treaty shall be registered pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations.

DONE at Washington on Dec. 8, 1987