Lugar Announces Elimination of Weapons of Mass Destructions through Nunn-Lugar On February 1, 2012, Lugar was awarded the 2012 Minute Man of the Year award by the Reserves Officer Association for his contributions to national security and U.S. military personnel.
BigNews.Biz - May 06,2012 - Lugar Announces Elimination of Weapons of Mass Destructions through Nunn-Lugar
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar announced continued progress in Nunn-Lugar Global:
3 nuclear weapons train transport shipments secured in March 2012;
51.11 metric tons of chemical weapons nerve agent destroyed in March 2012; and
109 Russian SS-25 Inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed.
The 109 ICBMs had been destroyed through Nunn-Lugar between 2005 and 2009 but had not previously been disclosed as part of the Nunn-Lugar Scorecard. Also in March, Lugar commended operations to secure deadly nuclear materials in Kazakhstan in operations that previously had been classified.
On February 1, 2012, Lugar was awarded the 2012 Minute Man of the Year award by the Reserves Officer Association for his contributions to national security and U.S. military personnel.
On Veteran’s Day 2011, Lugar delivered a speech at Indiana University in which he called for increased efforts to stop threats of weapons of mass destruction. He heralded the future of Nunn-Lugar Global “to protect Americans at home and our service personnel overseas.”
“Achieving this mission requires constant vigilance. I will continue my efforts to bolster Nunn-Lugar activities that eliminate threats to U.S. security before they reach our shores,” Lugar said.
The Nunn-Lugar scorecard now totals 7,619 strategic nuclear warheads deactivated, 902 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed, 498 ICBM silos eliminated, 191 ICBM mobile launchers destroyed, 155 bombers eliminated, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles (ASMs) destroyed, 492 SLBM launchers eliminated, 680 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) eliminated, 33 nuclear submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles destroyed, 194 nuclear test tunnels eliminated, 2854.622 metric tons of Russian and Albanian chemical weapons agent destroyed, 565 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured, security at 24 nuclear weapons storage sites upgraded, 38 biological threat monitoring stations built and equipped.
Perhaps most importantly, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus are nuclear weapons free as a result of cooperative efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program. Those countries were the third, fourth and eighth largest nuclear weapons powers in the world.
Lugar makes regular oversight missions to Nunn-Lugar Global sites around the world. During his most recent mission, Lugar led a mission to East Africa to expand efforts to secure deadly biological threats.
In November 1991, Lugar (R-IN) and Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA) authored the Nunn-Lugar Act, which established the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. This program has provided U.S. support and expertise to help the former Soviet Union safeguard and dismantle its enormous stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, related materials, and delivery systems. In 2003, Congress adopted Senator Lugar’s Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, which authorized operations outside the former Soviet Union to address proliferation threats. In 2004, Nunn-Lugar funds were committed for the first time outside of the former Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons in Albania.
The Nunn-Lugar program: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/
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