4 Jan 2010, Tues, Nuclear News: Arms Treaty Would Not Affect Nuke Plans, Russia Says

Global Security Newswire: Arms Treaty Would Not Affect Nuke Plans, Russia Says

A new U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control treaty would not alter Moscow's plans for updating its nuclear deterrent, Interfax yesterday quoted a spokesman for Russia's strategic missile forces as saying (see GSN, Jan. 3).

"The New START does not ban the modernization or replacement of strategic offensive armaments, including the development of new types of arms for the strategic [missile] forces," Col. Vadim Koval said.

President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed New START last April. The pact would require Russia and the United States to each cap their deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550, down from a limit of 2,200 required by 2012 under an earlier treaty. It also would set a ceiling of 700 deployed warhead delivery systems, with another 100 allowed in reserve.

The U.S. Senate voted on December 22 to ratify the treaty, and the Russian Duma two days later completed the first of three votes required for the pact's endorsement by Moscow.

Russia would meet its nuclear modernization goals within the pact's limitations on warhead deployments, Koval said.

"The grouping of the forces is being reduced through the decommissioning of ICBMs with an expired service life and the reduction to the minimum of the existing missile systems. The grouping is being modernized through the adoption of missile regiments equipped with new missile systems," he said.

Russia's draft defense plan for the next decade "implies the rearmament of strategic nuclear forces," Koval quoted Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying.

"The plan is that the strategic nuclear forces would be 70 percent armed with modern types of weapons. In the strategic rocket forces -- the most combat capable component of the nuclear deterrence force -- their share will exceed 90 percent," the spokesman said.

Russia's nuclear forces would meet the standards of the new treaty within seven years of the pact entering into force, he said (Interfax, Jan. 3).