Nuclear Warheads

MOSCOW - President Vladimir V. Putin reiterated yesterday a Clinton-era offer to eliminate at least three-quarters of Russia's 6,000 nuclear warheads. But Putin said his proposal for sweeping arms cuts depends on the United States' not unilaterally withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty because of President Bush's plan for a national missile defense. "Russia welcomes the reciprocal readiness of the United States to reduce strategic offensive weapons," he said. "We are ready for a further verifiable reduction of strategic weapons to the level of 1,500 warheads, or even less."

President Barack Obama's call during the State of the Union address to reduce the threat of nuclear war could not have been more timely. The day before the president spoke, North Korea tested a primitive nuclear device, and the following day reports surfaced of Iranian attempts to buy technology that would greatly speed up its production of weapons-grade uranium. Mr. Obama's remarks focused on cutting the U.S. and Russian strategic arsenals in a way that maintains their deterrent function but reduces the chances of a conflict breaking out by accident or miscalculation.

WASHINGTON - On what President Bush called a "new day" in the history of U.S.-Russian relations, he and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia pledged yesterday to make deep cuts in their long-range nuclear arsenals over the next decade. Bush announced that the United States would slash the number of its nuclear warheads by two-thirds, to between 1,700 and 2,200. Without mentioning a figure, Putin said, "We will try to respond in kind." And in a speech last night, he proposed "a radical program of further reductions" in the two sides' arsenals.

President Obama achieved a major foreign policy goal in 2010 when he concluded the New START Treaty committing the U.S. and Russia to reduce the size of their long-range nuclear arsenals by a third within six years, to 1,550 warheads on each side. But as the president made clear in remarks at the time, even those cuts didn't go far enough. The world, he said, wouldn't be safe from the threat of these terrifying weapons until they were eliminated entirely. It was to be expected that Mr. Obama's critics in Congress would dismiss such views as either wishful thinking or as dangerously naive.

MOSCOW -- Ukraine's decision to sell its share of the disputed Black Sea Fleet and relinquish its nuclear warheads to Russia came under furious political assault yesterday, raising serious questions about whether the deal will stand.Ukrainian nationalists denounced the move as an act of "national betrayal" and demanded the resignation of President Leonid Kravchuk, who concluded the agreement in a meeting with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Friday. Several Ukrainian Parliament members said they would try to block the deal when it comes up for legislative review, according to reports from Kiev by the Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies.

The United States and Russia are retargeting their nuclear weapons to fall harmlessly into the sea. Ukraine has agreed -- or has it? -- to give up its nuclear armory. The stories are welcome signs that the Cold War is over. But not forgotten.For one thing, there are still nearly 50,000 nuclear warheads in the hands of the United States and the Soviet successor states. It takes time and money to get rid of them. The U.S. Energy Department is trying to dismantle 1,400 a year; over 10 years it should be possible to get the American arsenal down to a target of 3,500 warheads.

SEOUL, South Korea - A special envoy representing South Korea's incoming president plans to go to Washington this week to discuss North Korean nuclear activities amid revelations of possible fresh preparations by North Korea to build nuclear warheads, officials said here yesterday. Chyung Dai Chul, who is advising President-elect Roh Moo Hyun on efforts to bring about an end to the crisis, will confer with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, and hopes to meet President Bush in an effort to coordinate policy on North Korea, an aide said.

The Soviet Union is dead, but there are survivors, and as with any family whose members didn't get along, it's certain that there's going to be a bitter battle for a share of the inheritance.But this particular battle is one that can have deadly consequences, because the inheritance happens to include around 25,000 nuclear warheads, ranging from the monsters that sit atop the intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are still aimed at the United States, to the small, tactical battlefield weapons.

Questions about parkland and building space went unasked as residents stood on the edge of a metal staircase that dropped 30 feet to a place that was once one of the most secret in the country.A dozen central Anne Arundel County residents yesterday toured the old Nike missile silo on Bay Head Road that once housed nuclear warheads in their neighborhood.The residents were trying to figure out what they should do with the buildings and 24 acres on the soon-to-be closed site, which the Navy has promised to donate to the county next year for community activities.

LOS ANGELES -- Lockheed Corp. and two other defense contractors have announced the creation of a jointly-owned company to dismantle and destroy nuclear weapons and other Cold War-era munitions.Called International Disarmament Corp., the company is believed be the first of its kind and could mark the beginning of a new industry for defense contractors -- destroying the weapons they have spent nearly 50 years building.IDC was formed by Calabasas, Calif.-based Lockheed; Babcock & Wilcox, a unit of New Orleans-based McDermott International Inc.; and Stamford, Conn.

President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed Wednesday to open negotiations on a treaty that could slash nuclear arsenals by one-third as part of what they said would be a new era in relations between the two countries. The agreement, the result of the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders and coming on the eve of Thursday's Group of 20 economic summit, included a promise by Obama to visit Moscow this summer to pursue the talks. "Over the last several years, the relationship between our two countries has been allowed to drift," Obama said.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military mistakenly shipped parts from a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile to Taiwan, Pentagon officials announced yesterday. Top Pentagon officials said the material sent to Taiwan consisted of four electrical fuses for the ICBM nose cone. The fuses, used to trigger nuclear weapons, do not contain nuclear material. But experts on nuclear security said the mistaken transfer showed a serious deterioration in the safeguards and controls that the U.S. military has over its nuclear warheads.

WASHINGTON -- Air Force weapons officers assigned to secure nuclear warheads failed on five separate occasions to examine a bundle of cruise missiles headed to a B-52 bomber in North Dakota, leading the plane's crew to unknowingly fly six nuclear-armed missiles across the country. That August flight, the first known incident in which the U.S. military lost track of its nuclear weapons since the dawn of the atomic age, lasted nearly three hours, until the bomber landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in northern Louisiana.

MOSCOW - Joint U.S.-Russian efforts to boost security against potential attacks on Russian storage sites for nuclear warheads have accelerated in recent months, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said here yesterday. Sen. Richard G. Lugar credited the stepped-up pace of activity to a new commitment by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin after a February summit with President Bush in Slovakia. "We've had an agreement for inspections at the warhead storage sites that has broken the logjam of misunderstanding there," the Indiana Republican said at a Moscow news conference.

Rid the world of the nuclear weapon threat In his thoughtful piece on U.S. policy in Iran, Michael Hill quotes Middle East expert Louis J. Cantori, who notes that "Iran is ... quite intelligently trying to obtain a nuclear weapon of its own to balance the Israeli nuclear capability" ("Old Enemy, Still There," July 25). This is a crucial point, usually absent in discussions of weapons of mass destruction. Iran is a short missile's throw from Israel, which possesses hundreds of nuclear warheads.

SEOUL, South Korea - A special envoy representing South Korea's incoming president plans to go to Washington this week to discuss North Korean nuclear activities amid revelations of possible fresh preparations by North Korea to build nuclear warheads, officials said here yesterday. Chyung Dai Chul, who is advising President-elect Roh Moo Hyun on efforts to bring about an end to the crisis, will confer with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, and hopes to meet President Bush in an effort to coordinate policy on North Korea, an aide said.

WASHINGTON -- Air Force weapons officers assigned to secure nuclear warheads failed on five separate occasions to examine a bundle of cruise missiles headed to a B-52 bomber in North Dakota, leading the plane's crew to unknowingly fly six nuclear-armed missiles across the country. That August flight, the first known incident in which the U.S. military lost track of its nuclear weapons since the dawn of the atomic age, lasted nearly three hours, until the bomber landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in northern Louisiana.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military mistakenly shipped parts from a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile to Taiwan, Pentagon officials announced yesterday. Top Pentagon officials said the material sent to Taiwan consisted of four electrical fuses for the ICBM nose cone. The fuses, used to trigger nuclear weapons, do not contain nuclear material. But experts on nuclear security said the mistaken transfer showed a serious deterioration in the safeguards and controls that the U.S. military has over its nuclear warheads.

WASHINGTON - On what President Bush called a "new day" in the history of U.S.-Russian relations, he and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia pledged yesterday to make deep cuts in their long-range nuclear arsenals over the next decade. Bush announced that the United States would slash the number of its nuclear warheads by two-thirds, to between 1,700 and 2,200. Without mentioning a figure, Putin said, "We will try to respond in kind." And in a speech last night, he proposed "a radical program of further reductions" in the two sides' arsenals.

MOSCOW - President Vladimir V. Putin reiterated yesterday a Clinton-era offer to eliminate at least three-quarters of Russia's 6,000 nuclear warheads. But Putin said his proposal for sweeping arms cuts depends on the United States' not unilaterally withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty because of President Bush's plan for a national missile defense. "Russia welcomes the reciprocal readiness of the United States to reduce strategic offensive weapons," he said. "We are ready for a further verifiable reduction of strategic weapons to the level of 1,500 warheads, or even less."