On July 31, 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Washington. START mandates substantial reductions in the number of strategic ballistic missiles and heavy bombers and their attributed nuclear warheads.
The breakup of the Soviet Union in late 1991 delayed START's entry into force until Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, all of which had inherited strategic nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union, ratified START and joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as non-nuclear states.
When START entered into force on December 5, 1994, signatories began to implement the Treaty's complex set of intrusive inspection and verification measures. The Treaty provides for 12 types of inspections and exhibitions, as well as continuous monitoring at mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) final assembly facilities, that may be used by each signatory in evaluating START compliance.
As part of START's verification provisions, each signatory was required to declare all facilities related to ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers. The United States has declared over two dozen START-inspectable sites. The complete list of U.S. START-inspectable sites appears below; formerly declared sites are grouped together and shown in italics.
Aerojet, Sacramento, California
Camp Navajo, Flagstaff, Arizona
Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota
F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming
Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota
Hercules Plant #1 (now called Alliant Plant #1), Magna, Utah
Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah
Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana
Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota
Oasis Complex, Utah
Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri
START contains provisions that permit up to 30 inspectors to conduct continuous portal and perimeter monitoring activities at one U.S. site and two former Soviet sites. Inspectors are permitted to visually observe and physically measure all existing vehicles. The designated portal in the United States is Thiokol Corporation Strategic Operations, Promontory, Utah. The former Soviet Union, however, has never exercised its right to conduct monitoring operations at Thiokol.
SLBM Facilities
Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, California
Strategic Weapons Facility-Atlantic Detachment, Charleston, South Carolina
Tekoi Test Facility, Goshute Indian Reservation, Utah
Trident Training Facility Bangor, Silverdale, Washington
Trident Training Facility, King's Bay, Georgia
Naval Guided Missile School - Dam Neck, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Submarine Training Facility, Charleston, South Carolina
Submarine Facilities
Strategic Weapons Facility-Atlantic, King's Bay, Georgia
Strategic Weapons Facility-Pacific, Silverdale, Washington
Test Range
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Heavy Bomber/Former Heavy Bomber Facilities
Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona
Dyess Air Force Base, Texas
Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota
McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas
Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota
Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho
Robins Air Force Base, Georgia
Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri
Carswell Air Force Base, Texas
Castle Air Force Base, California
Eaker Air Force Base, Arkansas
Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington
Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota
Griffiss Air Force Base, New York
K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, Michigan
Loring Air Force Base, Maine
Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan
Suspect Sites
The Treaty also gives signatories the right to conduct suspect site inspections to confirm that covert assembly of mobile ICBMs or mobile ICBM first stages is not occurring. Both the United States and the Soviet Union included sites that would be subject to suspect site inspections in START's Memorandum of Understanding. In the United States, those suspect sites are:
Aerojet, Sacramento, California
Hercules Plant #1 (now called Alliant Plant #1), Magna, Utah
Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah
Points of Entry
(For Foreign Inspection Teams)
The Treaty designates points of entry on each signatory's territory for foreign inspectors arriving to conduct START inspections at declared and undeclared sites. The points of entry in the United States are Travis Air Force Base, California, and Washington, D.C.
As of December 1997