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“For 50 years, the Arms Control Association has educated citizens around the world to help create broad support for U.S.-led arms control and nonproliferation achievements.”

– President Joe Biden
June 2, 2022
About ACA

U.S. Submits Weapons-Trade Data to UN

At the end of May, the United States reported to the United Nations that U.S. arms exports last year totaled 2,879 weapons to 23 countries, including Taiwan. This sum ranks as the largest volume of U.S. arms exports for a year since the 1997 total of 4,759 weapons.

Each year, the United States volunteers the arms export report to the UN Register of Conventional Arms, which was established in 1992. Created to make global arms sales more public, the register calls on countries to voluntarily submit annual reports on their trade in seven categories of conventional weapons: battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, and missiles and missile launchers.

The United States defines an export as the transfer of a weapon’s ownership title to the buyer. Other countries may use different criteria, such as the time at which a sold weapon actually leaves their territory.

U.S. arms exports in 2001 would have been low compared with those reported in previous years if not for the export of 1,902 M-26 rockets and 41 other missile systems to Israel, which accounted for two-thirds of the U.S. total.

The next top importers of U.S. weaponry in 2001 were Taiwan, Spain, and Brazil. Washington reported exporting 269 weapons, most of which were ship-launched missiles, to Taiwan. Spain acquired 114 missiles, almost all of which were for arming ships; and Brazil received 91 tanks, seven warships, and two airplanes for maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare.

Because of Israel’s rocket buys, most U.S. arms exports last year went to countries in the Near East. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Jordan together took receipt of 106 U.S. weapons, which totals 2,049 weapons for the region when added to Israel’s purchase. Seven countries in Asia and the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand, accounted for 377 of the U.S. export total, making that region a very distant second to the Near East. European countries, which cumulatively were the top importers of U.S. arms for the previous three years, took ownership of only 246 U.S. weapons last year.
For its part, the United States reported importing only a single missile from Norway.

Iran Conducts Fourth Shahab-3 Test

Iran successfully completed its fourth test of the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile in mid-May, Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said May 26, according to an Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) report.

With a range of 1,300 kilometers when equipped with a 700-kilogram payload, the liquid-fueled, road-mobile Shahab-3 can potentially target all of Israel with weapons of mass destruction. The missile is largely derived from the North Korean Nodong-1 and was built with significant technological assistance from Russia, according to U.S. intelligence agencies. (Russia’s nuclear and missile cooperation with Iran was a focal point of the recent U.S.-Russian presidential summit. See p. 27.)

Of Iran’s three previous Shahab-3 tests, only the second, conducted in July 2000, is believed to have been a success. (See ACT, September 2000.) Despite the previous failures, a December 2001 U.S. intelligence estimate characterized the missile as “in the late stages of development.”

The May 26 IRNA report quoted Shamkhani announcing that Iran will continue its missile program “in order to promote the power and precision of the Shahab-3 missile.” He said that the tests were carried out “to upgrade the missile and are not regarded as a new production or step toward increasing its range.”

Shamkhani added that despite the test’s success, Iran “is not intending to build new missiles under the names of Shahab-4 or Shahab-5, as claimed by the Americans.” However, Shamkhani has previously called for development of a Shahab-4 with space-launch potential and has mentioned plans for a longer-range Shahab-5 missile.

On May 16, a State Department spokesman said that the administration continues to have “serious concerns” about the Iranian missile program. The spokesman emphasized that the United States views “Iran’s efforts to further develop its missile capabilities, including flight testing of missiles, as a threat to the region and to U.S. interests” and said that Washington will “continue to actively pursue extensive efforts to stop the proliferation of missile technology and equipment to Iran.”

U.S. Seeks Threat Reduction Funding From Allies

The Bush administration is pressing key allies to increase substantially their financial contributions to efforts to secure and downsize Russia’s vulnerable weapons of mass destruction complex.
Under what Washington terms the “10 Plus 10 Over 10” plan, the administration is seeking a total of $10 billion over 10 years from the other leading industrialized nations that, together with the United States, comprise the Group of Seven (G-7). Over those 10 years, the United States would also contribute $10 billion, roughly its current funding level for threat reduction programs.

President George W. Bush mentioned the initiative during a May 23 press briefing with German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder, saying Russia would require extra funds to secure the warheads it removes from service under the new U.S.-Russian Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty. (See U.S., Russia Sign Treaty Cutting Deployed Nuclear Forces.)

The United States has long sought increased financial contributions for threat reduction programs from its allies. In particular, Washington has looked to the G-7 nations to provide the bulk of the funding for Russia’s effort to implement the 2000 U.S.-Russian plutonium disposition agreement, under which the two countries each agreed to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-origin plutonium.

So far, the United States’ G-7 partners have only pledged limited funds for the plutonium disposition initiative. The countries appear concerned about the size of the needed contribution and about the project’s political ramifications. For example, the German government has longstanding concerns about the proliferation threat posed by using plutonium for power generation, which is planned under the initiative. It is also wary of supporting nuclear power generation in another country while it is phasing out civil nuclear power at home.

Reports indicate that Washington is hoping for a joint statement on the proposal at the Group of Eight (G-7 plus Russia) summit planned for late June in the Kananaskis region of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The plan has reportedly received a mixed reception, with some states expressing reluctance because of the size of the financial commitment involved and because of concerns over the threat reduction programs’ ability to absorb substantial funding increases.

Bush Urges Senate Approval of IAEA Protocol

On May 9, President George W. Bush transmitted to the Senate for its approval the “additional protocol” to the U.S.-International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear safeguards agreement. It is the first time since taking office that the administration has forwarded an arms control treaty to the Senate for its advice and consent.

In his message to the Senate, Bush urged “early and favorable consideration” of the agreement. He emphasized that “universal adoption” of the protocol is “a central goal” of his nuclear nonproliferation policy. The United States signed the protocol in 1998.

The IAEA drafted the protocol to strengthen its ability to detect covert nuclear weapons programs after it was unable to discover clandestine programs in Iraq and North Korea in the early 1990s. The protocol expands the IAEA’s legal authority beyond the original safeguards agreements the agency has with its member states. Those agreements, which aimed to allow the IAEA to verify that the products of civil nuclear programs were not being diverted to weapons programs, restrict the agency to inspecting and monitoring only declared nuclear sites.

Under the new protocol, the IAEA is allowed to conduct short- or no-notice inspections and employ new environmental-sampling and satellite-monitoring techniques at any suspect site. The protocol also requires states to provide the IAEA with additional information about aspects of their civilian nuclear programs, such as fuel-cycle activity and nuclear-related exports.

However, as one of the five states allowed to retain nuclear weapons under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the United States is not required to give the IAEA access to any facility it deems “of national security significance.” In effect, U.S. ratification of the protocol primarily serves to set a good example for those states that have yet to sign or ratify, according to a Senate staffer familiar with the agreement.

It is not clear when the Senate might take up the protocol since the White House has yet to submit a draft of the legislation detailing how it plans to implement the protocol. The staffer said it was possible that the Foreign Relations Committee would consider the protocol before the end of the year.
In March, China notified the IAEA that it had completed ratification of its protocol, becoming the only NPT nuclear-weapon state whose agreement has entered into force.

Stage Set for Missile Defense Funding Feud

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees set the stage in May for a possible clash on missile defense funding later this year between the Republican-controlled House and the Senate, with its slim Democratic majority.

On May 1, the House Armed Services Committee approved its version of the fiscal year 2003 defense authorization act, providing a $21 million increase in missile defense spending above the Pentagon’s requested $7.8 billion. Its Senate counterpart, however, voted May 10 to cut $812 million from the administration’s missile defense request, reallocating $690 million of the slashed funds to shipbuilding for the Navy.

On May 10, the full House easily passed its Armed Services Committee’s version of the defense authorization act with the $21 million boost in missile defense spending intact. The Senate has yet to act on its committee’s recommended bill but is expected to vote in June. Once the Senate finalizes a version of the bill, the House and Senate will need to iron out any differences between their two drafts and then send a compromise version to the president.

Testifying May 21 before the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he opposed the proposed $812 million cut, which he described as “harmful,” and called upon the full Senate to restore the funding. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) assured Rumsfeld that he and other Senate Republicans would work to do just that when the bill comes to the Senate floor for debate.

Ottawa Convention States Meet

More than 90 countries met September 18-21 in Managua, Nicaragua, to review implementation of a treaty banning the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines (APLs). Despite their success in destroying millions of APLs worldwide, the states-parties to the Ottawa Convention stated that they “remain deeply concerned” about continued APL use, and they vowed to make the weapons “objects of the past.”

Taking stock of accomplishments since the treaty entered into force on March 1, 1999, the states-parties noted in the meeting’s final declaration that 28 countries had completed destruction of their stockpiled APLs and that another 19 had programs underway. Under the treaty, states-parties are charged with destroying their APL stockpiles within four years and all APLs under their control, including those planted in the soil, within 10 years, although countries may request an extension.

Speakers at the meeting noted that, despite the progress in destroying APLs, governments and non-state actors in more than 20 ongoing conflicts were still using the weapons. Allegations of treaty violations by one state-party, Uganda, and some signatories, such as Angola, Burundi, and Sudan, were voiced, although no country made a formal request to seek clarification of the matter, according to the meeting’s president, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Francisco Xavier Aguirre Sacasa. Uganda denied the allegation.

The states-parties urged all countries to join the convention. Major powers, such as the United States, Russia, and China, as well as most countries in the Near East and approximately half of all countries in the Asia-Pacific region have not signed the treaty. The number of treaty signatories and states-parties now stands at 141, of which 120 are states-parties.

The next annual states-parties meeting will take place September 16-20, 2002, in Geneva.

Joint U.S.-Russian TMD Exercise Conducted

On February 11, the United States and Russia concluded a 10-day joint theater missile defense (TMD) exercise at the Joint National Test Facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The exercise was the first phase of a two-part exercise aimed at improving the capability of U.S. and Russian forces to operate together to protect against short- and medium-range ballistic missile attacks in the event the two forces are deployed together and face a common adversary.

The principal focus of the exercise was establishing and refining common procedures for the two sides to "communicate and cooperate" with one another, a Defense Department spokesperson said. The exercise was computer simulated and the two forces were given generic TMD capabilities with the same performance parameters, minimizing the danger that any sensitive information could be compromised. According to the Pentagon spokesperson, approximately 80 Americans and 32 Russians participated in the exercise, which cost $735,000.

The United States and Russia have held two other joint TMD exercises. Initiated by then-Presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin in September 1994, the first of the exercises took place in Colorado in 1996, and the second occurred in Moscow in 1998.

The second part of this latest exercise is scheduled to take place next year from January 23 to February 3 in Fort Bliss, Texas, where U.S. and Russian teams will be tasked with responding to simulated ballistic missile attacks by using the procedures worked out during the first phase. The spokesperson described this second phase as "limited field testing."

China Seeks Airborne Radar From Russia

Visiting Beijing in early November, Russian officials discussed possible new arms deals with China, including the sale of up to five planes designed for airborne early-warning (AEW) missions. China currently does not possess any AEW platforms, which enable militaries to significantly extend the range at which they can monitor foreign military activities and guide their own aircraft. In 1996, China concluded a deal to acquire an Israeli AEW system, known as the Phalcon, but Israel pulled out of the deal July 11 under heavy U.S. pressure. Washington had been concerned about how the sale could impact the military balance in the Taiwan Strait. (See ACT, September 2000.)

Russia is reportedly offering China upgraded versions of the Beriev A-50 plane, referred to as "Mainstay" by NATO, which would permit China to simultaneously track tens, and perhaps hundreds, of targets as far as 400 kilometers away, while directing some 10-30 Chinese aircraft. A June 2000 Pentagon report indicated that Chinese incorporation of AEW and aerial refueling planes could be a "significant force multiplier for China's air forces, although only for relatively small numbers of aircraft at any one time."

China is also reportedly interested in buying an additional two Sovremennyy-class destroyers from Russia. The first of two previously bought destroyers arrived in China this past February, while the second is expected to arrive by the end of the year.

China Seeks Airborne Radar From Russia

Russia Consolidates Leading Arms-Export Firms

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree November 4 merging Russia's two largest state-owned arms exporters into a single new company called Rosoboronexport. Putin ordered the merger to stop the two leading exporters, Rosvooruzheniye and Promexport, from competing against one another and, in effect, driving down the cost of Russian weaponry, an important source of hard currency for Moscow. The new company, which will handle an estimated 90 percent of all Russian arms exports, will report to the Ministry of Defense as opposed to the Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology, which previously oversaw Russian arms exports.

Putin's decree marked the reversal of an August 1997 effort by then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin to increase Russian arms exports in the post-Cold War market by breaking up Rosvooruzheniye's state-granted monopoly of the Russian arms trade through the creation of two additional entities, Promexport and Russian Technologies. Yeltsin assigned each entity separate responsibilities, hoping to streamline the Russian arms export process, but the boundaries between the entities blurred, leading to unexpected competition.

Andrei Belyaninov, a deputy director of Promexport, was appointed head of Rosoboronexport, while deputy positions at the new company were reportedly offered to the directors of Rosvooruzheniye and Promexport, which merged with Russian Technologies earlier this year.

Since the end of the Cold War, Moscow has sought to increase its share of the arms market after experiencing a dramatic decline in new weapons deals. Russian arms deliveries fell to a few billion dollars per year over the past decade after exceeding $20 billion per year during the mid- and late- 1980s. Though the Congressional Research Service reported in August that Russian arms agreements rose from $2.5 billion in 1998 to $4.8 billion in 1999, new deals have often fallen short of Russian industry forecasts. In a November 13 statement, the Kremlin reassured current clients that all existing contracts would be fulfilled and that talks underway would not be slowed by Putin's decree.

Russia Consolidates Leading Arms-Export Firms

Next Navy Theater Wide Test Planned

October 2000

The U.S. Navy plans to conduct the next flight test of its Navy Theater Wide (NTW) anti-ballistic missile system before the end of this year but has yet to set a definitive date. In an August 31 announcement, the Navy said the test, the third overall, will repeat the mission of a failed July 14 test, whose objective was to demonstrate the NTW interceptor missile's third-stage booster for the first time. Unlike the previous flight test, the upcoming test will include a target, though no intercept will be attempted.

Pentagon plans for the NTW system envision deployment of SM-3 interceptor missiles on U.S. cruisers and destroyers equipped with upgraded versions of Aegis combat systems, the key element of which is an advanced radar capable of simultaneously detecting and tracking over 100 targets while carrying out missile-guidance operations. Powered by a three-stage booster, the SM-3 missile will carry a kinetic warhead designed to collide with medium- and long-range theater ballistic missile warheads above the atmosphere.

In the July 14 test, the second- and third-stage boosters of the SM-3 missile failed to separate. The Navy identified a programming error in the interceptor's navigation processor as the "most probable cause" of failure. Nevertheless, a mission review team will evaluate "all possible failure paths" before the next test, according to the Navy statement. This first series of tests is to be completed by September 2002, when another round of testing will begin against more realistic targets. The Navy has set a 2006 target date for deployment of the first, limited capability NTW system.

Next Navy Theater Wide Test Planned

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