U.S., Russia reach agreement on nuclear arms treaty

It's been a great week for the "good guys", to say the least.

U.S., Russia reach agreement on nuclear arms treaty

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 26, 2010; 10:48 AM

President Obama and Russia President Dmitry Medvedev sealed a new nuclear arms reduction treaty during a phone call this morning, committing the two nations to a significant new reduction of the strategic missiles each side has deployed, U.S. officials announced today.

The treaty, which must still be ratified in the U.S. Senate and in Russia, would replace a 19-year-old pact that called for both countries to draw down their dangerous arsenals of thousands of long-range nuclear weapons.

The new deal took shape after months of negotiations that stretched on far longer than officials had expected. The 1991 START treaty expired in early December of last year, forcing the presidents of both countries to pledge they would abide by its parameters until a new treaty could be forged.

The treaty calls for both sides to reduce the stockpiles of their most dangerous weapons -- those already deployed and ready to launch at long-range targets -- by about 30 percent, allowing each side to retain about 1,550 such warheads.

It also limits deployed and non-deployed missile launchers and heavy bombers to 800, and says that each side may only have 700 such equipment already deployed -- a cut in half from the limits in the previous treaty.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032601943_pf.html