START II

• 1. Treaty Origins And Signing

  ›

  George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin met in Moscow on the 3rd of January 1993 to sign a historic agreement. This event marked the official start of the START II treaty between the United States and Russia. The two leaders had begun their diplomatic negotiations earlier that year on the 17th of June 1992. Their joint understanding laid the groundwork for banning multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles on intercontinental ballistic missiles. The document became known as the De-MIRV-ing Agreement due to its specific focus on these complex warheads. The signing ceremony itself was a moment of high tension given the volatile political climate of the early 1990s.

  1

• 2. MIRV Technology And Strategy

  ›

  Soviet R-36M missiles could carry up to ten warheads while US LGM-118 Peacekeeper missiles shared this capability before becoming obsolete. These Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles allowed a single missile to deliver anywhere from two to fifty warheads depending on the design. Such technology put a premium on launching a first strike because it multiplied destruction capabilities significantly. A hypothetical scenario showed how one hundred missiles with five warheads each could reduce an enemy force to about five remaining missiles if struck first. Decoys carried by these missiles further complicated defense strategies by making accurate targeting difficult. The sheer number of highly accurate warheads meant an entire nation including missile silos and air force bomber fleets could be annihilated in a single attack.

  3

• 3. Senate Ratification Process

  ›

  The United States Senate voted 87, 4 to ratify the treaty on the 26th of January 1996. This overwhelming approval contrasted sharply with the situation in Russia where ratification stalled for many years. The Russian State Duma postponed votes repeatedly to protest American military actions in Iraq and Kosovo. They also used delays to oppose the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. By the 14th of April 2000, the Russian Duma finally ratified the treaty but attached strict conditions regarding the ABM Treaty. The US Senate never approved a September 1997 addendum that included agreed statements on strategic and tactical missile defenses. A faction of Republicans led by Jesse Helms opposed any limits on American anti-ballistic missile systems which caused this deadlock.

  13

• 4. ABM Treaty Withdrawal

  ›

  Russia made its ratification conditional on preserving the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty throughout the negotiation period. On the 13th of June 2002, the United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty after years of debate over missile defense systems. Just one day later on the 14th of June 2002, Russia announced it would no longer consider itself bound by START II provisions. This withdrawal triggered the immediate collapse of the entire agreement despite previous diplomatic efforts. Both countries continued to pursue their objectives independently after the breakdown. The US developed the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system to protect against small-scale ICBM attacks while Russia retained significant MIRV-capable forces including RS-20/R-36M missiles with ten warheads each.

  13

• 5. Transition To SORT Agreement

  ›

  George W. Bush set a plan in motion during 2001 to reduce missile forces from 6,000 to between 1,700 and 2,200. The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty replaced the failed START II agreement at a summit meeting in November 2001. Bush and Vladimir Putin signed this new treaty at the Moscow Summit on the 24th of May 2002. Both sides agreed to reduce operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,700 from 2,200 by 2012. In October 2002, the US began its unilateral withdrawal of MIRV systems and completed it by the 19th of September 2005. As of 2011, the Minuteman III remained the only American land-based operational ICBM capable of carrying three RVs.

  3