Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator for Indiana

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar announced the following accomplishments for the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program in September:

· 1 nuclear weapons capable submarine,

· 12 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) destroyed, and

· 5 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured.

The submarine dismantled last month was the 3^rd Typhoon-class and 32^nd nuclear weapons capable submarine destroyed under the Nunn-Lugar program. The six Soviet Typhoon submarines were the world's largest. It was one of the most feared weapons of the Cold War, prowling the waters off America's eastern seaboard with missiles targeted at the United States. The Typhoon could launch 200 independently targetable nuclear warheads, each with enough capacity to destroy a city the size of Indianapolis.

In August 1999, Lugar traveled to the SevMarsh shipyard near Severodvinsk, Russia, and became the first American to have an up-close look at the Typhoon submarines. The Russians did not allow American photographs of the visit but later mailed Lugar a photo of him standing in front of a Typhoon, a photograph the CIA studied closely since it was one of the best photos they had seen. A 300 dpi photo of Lugar and a Typhoon submarine is available at http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/typhoon/. For more photos, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/senatorlugar/sets/72157622494597186/.

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. funding 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 the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, which authorized the Nunn-Lugar program to operate 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, under a Lugar-led expansion of the program. In 2007, Lugar announced the complete destruction of Albania’s chemical weapons.

The Nunn-Lugar scorecard now totals 7,514 strategic nuclear warheads deactivated, 767 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed, 498 ICBM silos eliminated, 143 ICBM mobile launchers destroyed, 651 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) eliminated, 476 SLBM launchers eliminated, 32 nuclear submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles destroyed, 155 bomber eliminated, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles (ASMs) destroyed, 194 nuclear test tunnels eliminated, 463 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured, upgraded security at 24 nuclear weapons storage sites, and built and equipped 18 biological monitoring stations. 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 annual oversight trips to Nunn-Lugar sites around the world.

The Nunn-Lugar program: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/

The Nunn-Lugar scorecard: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/scorecard.html

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