Chapter 4 - INF Baseline Inspections

During the baseline inspection period (July - August 1988), Colonel Kelley and his team conducted many inspections. Here the American inspectors together with their Soviet escorts assembled in front of a T-34 tank at Vyru, an SS-4 missile operating base in Estonia.

The process began at the airport, where Colonel Kelley and the team were met by Colonel Ivan Y. Abrosimov, the Soviet escort leader, and his team members. Representing the agency in Moscow were Lt. Colonel Ken Keating, U.S. Army, Eileen Malloy, U.S. State Department, and Sergeant First Class John Steinmetz, U S. Army. They met the American inspection team at the airport, and along with the Soviet escort team, they accompanied the aircrew to customs, and then to their overnight accommodations in Moscow. After a treaty-specified four-hour minimum period, Kelley declared the American inspection team's intention to inspect the Soviet SS-20 missile operating base at Rechitsa in Byelorussia. From the time of that declaration, the Soviet Union had nine hours to get the U.S. inspection team to the site.

The Soviets met the treaty deadline. The U.S. inspectors and their Soviet escorts flew from Moscow to Byelorussia and then were taken by bus to the SS-20 missile base. When Kelley's team arrived at the site, they proceeded immediately to a pre-inspection briefing by the Soviet missile site commander. Required by the treaty, this briefing ran approximately an hour and included a presentation of a site diagram describing the location of the missiles, stages, launchers, support equipment, and support structures. The diagram also included data on the exact number of treaty items. At this time, the American inspectors were provided with information on safety and potential hazards at the site. Following this briefing, Kelley and his team commenced their baseline inspection at 0001 hours GMT (0401 local), July 2. They made a thorough inspection of the entire site, escorted throughout by Soviet INF officials knowledgeable about the treaty. The inspecting party had the treaty right of conducting a 24-hour inspection; however, approximately eight hours after the inspection began, Kelley declared it completed. Assisted by the linguists and other inspectors, Colonel Kelley prepared the treaty inspection report in English and Russian.¹²

According to the INF Treaty's Protocol on Inspections (Article 11, Paragraph 1), the inspection report had to be "factual" and had to record the type of inspection, name of the inspection site, number of missiles, stages of missiles, and the number of launchers and support equipment at the site. Essentially, the inspection report certified what treaty-limited items had been observed and counted during the inspection. At a brief concluding ceremony held at the missile site, Kelley and Abrosimov signed two copies of the inspection report, one for each party. Following this ceremony, the American inspection and Soviet escort teams departed promptly, returning to Moscow the same day. From Moscow, the American team returned to Frankfurt, where preparations were undertaken for conducting another baseline inspection mission in a few days. General Lajoie left the team, returning to Washington for a series of briefings and press conferences on the treaty and the on-site inspections. Colonel Kelley and the other team members remained in Frankfurt.

Throughout the summer of 1988 all of the American INF teams conducting baseline inspections followed similar procedures and processes, although inspecting some of the larger Soviet sites required considerably more of the 24-hour time period. By July 5, 10 American teams had deployed and were carrying out baseline inspections of Soviet INF sites. These teams flew from Frankfurt to Moscow or from Yokota Air Base to Ulan-Ude. By July 10, the initial teams had returned, received new briefings and redeployed to the USSR. By July 22, another 14 baseline inspections were under way. During this intense period continuous portal monitoring inspections were begun, along with two other types of INF inspections: eliminations and closeouts.

During baseline, the first SS-20 elimination took place at Kapustin Yar. Here, a group of Soviet escorts and a single American inspector, General Lajoie, (fifth from left) paused for a photograph in front of a SS-20 missile canister.