Chapter 5 - CPM Inspections

In late July 1988, the USSR's portal monitoring building arrived by air cargo from the Soviet Union. The building was a group of four prefab modules that would be fitted together at the site. It would become the Soviet Union's data collection center. Also included in the cargo were two small booths for monitoring road exits. The Soviet buildings and booths were inspected by U.S. officials at the airport, then transported to the Magna site. In early October, they were placed on concrete foundations. The U.S. escort team, assisted by the Soviet inspectors, installed electrical wiring, backup electrical generators, and treaty-authorized monitoring equipment. By mid-October, the Soviet inspection team was monitoring the traffic leaving the portal from their data collection center. Other monitoring equipment--traffic lights, gate switches, and closed-circuit television--were also installed during the first treaty year.

By agreement, the two inspection agencies determined that, the party being inspected would provide permanent housing for the portal monitoring inspectors within the first year. The inspecting party would pay for the housing, as required by the treaty, but it would be constructed by the inspected party. At Magna, U.S. officials offered the Soviet INF inspectors two choices for their permanent housing. The Soviets selected a five-acre site in West Jordan, Utah, a small town approximately eight miles southeast of Magna. In West Jordan, the U.S. government proposed to build a permanent apartment housing complex for the 30 Soviet inspectors, equipped with a clubhouse, swimming pool, spa, jogging path, and tennis court. It would cost $1.6 million. The Soviets agreed. Construction began in October 1988; as the work proceeded in the fall and winter months of 1988-89, Soviet team chiefs were briefed weekly on the construction status.

They also made periodic escorted visits to the site. By the spring of 1989, the West Jordan housing complex had been completed. The Soviet inspection team moved into their new residences on April 18. Approximately two weeks earlier, the American inspectors at Votkinsk had moved into their permanent quarters.³⁶

At Magna, Soviet inspectors, dressed in special anti-static suits, examine a rocket motor product that had exited the plant. American linguist Orr Potebnya assists Robert Erickson and the Soviet inspectors in answering a question.

		By the end of the first treaty year at Magna, the unfinished items included construction of the Soviet portal warehouse and paving of the portal inspection area. The U.S. site commander, Lt. Commander Szatkowski, had these items under contract; they would be completed during the second treaty year. As at Votkinsk, the portal monitoring equipment and procedures at Magna were subject to scrutiny and deliberations in the Special Verification Commission in Geneva. There, Soviet and American delegations worked out changes for the Magna portal monitoring equipment and procedures that were published in the Memorandum of Agreement of December 1989.
		From the First to the Third Treaty Year
At Votkinsk, an American inspector attaches the cable mechanism that pulls the missile rail car through the CargoScan imaging system.		In the broadest sense, two developments influenced the Soviet and American INF portal monitoring inspections in the second and third treaty years. First, on December 21, 1989, U.S. Ambassador Steven E. Steiner and Soviet Ambassador Mikhail N. Strel'tsov signed the INF Treaty Memorandum of Agreement. This important document covered many aspects of the treaty communication procedures, elimination procedures, pre-inspection requirements, general rules for conducting on-site inspections, and specific provisions for each type of inspection. On-site portal monitoring inspections received the most attention, as virtually every aspect was defined and codified into mutually agreeable language.³⁷

The Memorandum of Agreement detailed the obligations of the party being inspected at the portals regarding the presentation of the missile stages leaving the plant, the number of exits, the construction of storage facilities, and procedures for all vehicles exiting the portals. It defined the rights of the inspecting party regarding portal monitoring equipment, radio communications for inspectors making perimeter patrols, procedures for patrolling the perimeter, procedures for measuring missiles and missile stages leaving the plant, CargoScan requirements and installation procedures, inspector rotation procedures, and embassy visits by portal inspectors. When the memorandum was signed, it became one of the most significant treaty documents governing U.S. and USSR portal monitoring inspections.

The second major issue that influenced Soviet and American portal monitoring inspections occurred at Votkinsk where a serious issue arose over the installation and initial operation of the U.S. nondamaging CargoScan X-ray imaging equipment. This equipment measured the length and diameter of the second stage of those missiles that Soviet officials declared, and U.S. inspectors confirmed, exceeded a certain treaty-defined length. Two Soviet missiles, the SS-20 (banned by the INF Treaty) and the SS-25 (not banned) had been or were being assembled at the Votkinsk plant. The CargoScan system would scan the declared railcars to determine if the second stage of any banned SS-20 missiles were leaving the plant. The U.S. government had always regarded CargoScan as critical to its INF portal monitoring inspection regime.

In the first treaty year, Soviet officials had started preparations for the CargoScan building at the portal monitoring site. Soviet engineers laid the foundation for the building, constructed a spur rail line, and erected a shielding wall. In the summer and fall of 1989, work accelerated on the CargoScan building, and all of the system modules were in place by mid-November. Soviet officials then indicated that the final installation of CargoScan could proceed. After the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement in December, the final equipment (the linatron X-ray system) was installed in January 1990. It was tested and declared by U.S. experts to be ready for imaging operations.³⁸

At Votkinsk, American and Soviet inspectors stand before a missile rail car in January 1990.

Missile rail car being pulled through the CargoScan building.