The new START (Strategic Arms Reduction...

The New START Treaty is organized into three, increasingly detailed, tiers. The first is the 12-page Treaty text itself. The second tier consists of a 138-page Protocol to the Treaty, which contains additional rights and obligations associated with Treaty provisions. These two documents detail the basic rights and obligations. The third tier consists of Technical Annexes to the Protocol.

The Protocol to the Treaty defines the Treaty"s terminology and sets out procedures for observing the Treaty and monitoring compliance.

Although the bulk of the document is aimed at specialists, Part One entitled Terms and Their Definitions is very interesting. In effect, this is the only current legal set of terms regarding strategic nuclear arms.

First, a few words about the term "ICBM base." The new START treaty sets no limits on the bases for land-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems of the RT-2PM Topol (SS-25 Sickle), RT-2UTTKh Topol-M (SS-27 Sickle B)

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