News

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)
Inspectable Sites in the United States

Background

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.

ICBM Facilities

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

Continuous Monitoring Site
(ICBM Production Facility)

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