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Russian Ambassador to U.S. Sees Hope for Nuclear Arms Treaty Extension

IN THIS ISSUE: Russian Ambassador to U.S. Sees Hope for Nuclear Arms Treaty Extension, Iran Tells IAEA it Will Accelerate Underground Uranium Enrichment, U.S. Nuclear Warhead Standoff ‘Has Significant Implications for UK’, Congress Directs DoD to Build Interim Homeland Missile Defense Interceptor, Thieves Target Russia’s Nuclear War ‘Doomsday’ Plane, NATO and Russia – Expert Recommendations

Published on December 9, 2020

Russian Ambassador to U.S. Sees Hope for Nuclear Arms Treaty Extension

John Grady | USNI News

The Russian ambassador to the United States said there is still time to extend the Strategic Arms Control Treaty, due to expire in early February, even despite the upcoming presidential transition. Anatoly Antonov, whose diplomatic career largely has been spent focused on major arms control issues, said the START treaty is a “key issue” for Russia. “We have time; we can get it done very quickly.” Speaking at a Brookings Institution online forum last week, he added, “we are in close contact with Marshall Billingslea,” the Trump administration’s top envoy on arms control. He said several times during the forum that the Kremlin has been pushing the White House on an extension of its terms but has not received a formal answer.

Iran Tells IAEA it Will Accelerate Underground Uranium Enrichment

Francois Murphy | Reuters

Iran plans to install hundreds more advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges at an underground plant in breach of its deal with major powers, a UN nuclear watchdog report showed on Friday, a move that will raise pressure on U.S. President-elect Joe Biden. The confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report obtained by Reuters said Iran plans to install three more cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges in the underground plant at Natanz, which was apparently built to withstand aerial bombardment. Iran’s nuclear deal with major powers says Tehran can only use first-generation IR-1 centrifuges, which are less efficient, at the underground plant and that those are the only machines with which Iran may accumulate enriched uranium.

U.S. Nuclear Warhead Standoff ‘Has Significant Implications for UK’

Dan Sabbagh | Guardian

Britain’s most senior defence official admitted there would be “very significant implications” for the future of the Trident nuclear deterrent if Democrats in the US Congress refused to fund a next-generation warhead. Sir Stephen Lovegrove, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, said that the UK was monitoring the US standoff closely but could not say what impact a refusal to start work on the new W93 warhead would have – or how many billions it would cost. British politicians and officials have, until now, had little to say about the long-running US row over the W93, crudely estimated to be twice as explosive as the ageing Trident warhead now used by the UK.

Congress Directs DoD to Build Interim Homeland Missile Defense Interceptor

Jen Judson | Defense News

Congress is directing the Pentagon to build an interim homeland intercontinental ballistic missile defense interceptor, a weapon that is not in the Missile Defense Agency’s current plans to counter threats from North Korea and Iran. The fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, released Dec. 3, gives the Pentagon — through the Missile Defense Agency — 30 days to “commence carrying out a program to develop an interim ground-based interceptor capability” once the bill is signed into law. The Pentagon’s solution “should address the majority of current and near- to mid-term projected ballistic missile threats to the United States homeland from rogue nations” and “at a minimum, meet the proposed capabilities of the Redesigned Kill Vehicle program,” the language of the bill stated.

Thieves Target Russia’s Nuclear War ‘Doomsday’ Plane

Andrew Roth | Guardian

Thieves have targeted a Russian “doomsday” plane, the military aircraft that would be used by top officials, including Vladimir Putin, in case of a nuclear war. The robbery of the Ilyushin-80, a mobile command post specially designed to keep officials alive and in command of the military during a nuclear conflict, took place at an airfield in southern Russia, state media reported. The thieves managed to open the highly classified aircraft’s cargo hatch and make off with 39 pieces of radio equipment. They have not been caught. Interior ministry officials in the city of Taganrog confirmed that a plane at Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex was robbed, although they did not specify which one.

NATO and Russia – Expert Recommendations

Institute for US and Canadian Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

In June 2020 and Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies and Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences together launched an international project prevention of a military conflict between NATO and Russia. We conducted 20 online seminars involving a core group of about three dozen of well-known experts from the United States, Russia and other European countries. After six months of work the group has produced “Recommendations of the Participants of the NATO–Russia Expert Dialogue on Military Risk Reduction in Europe”. These Recommendations have been signed by 145 specialists, including 16 former ministers of foreign affairs and defense, 24 former high-placed diplomats and 27 retired Generals and Admirals. The document suggests that NATO and Russia should adopt practical measures to ease military tensions and avert a situation in which a crisis could escalate.

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.