User:Grko3/United States – Russia mutual detargeting

United States – Russia mutual detargeting occurred following a joint declaration by Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin on January 14, 1994. The declaration held that the United States and Russia would detarget nuclear weapons by May 30, 1994, so that no nuclear weapons would be directed at the other country. The US announced that targeting data would be removed from three US missile systems: the UGM-96 Trident I, UGM-133 Trident II, and LGM-118 Peacekeeper. The LGM-30G Minuteman-III, which required constant targeting, would be retargeted such that the missiles would be direct towards ocean areas.

The text of Kremlin accords, which is thirteen paragraphs long, includes a single paragraph on the subject of detargeting. It specifies May 30, 1994, as the deadline for detargeting. It states that "for the first time in nearly half a century -- virtually since the dawn of the nuclear age -- Russia and United States will not operate nuclear forces, day-to-day, in a manner that presumes they are adversaries."

In 1997, during a debate over an amendment that would require the president to certify that Russia had detargeted its missiles, Republican Congressman Curt Weldon introduced into the Congressional Record a transcript of a 60 Minutes interview with Russian generals which stated that Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) could be retargeted to point to US targets within a matter of minutes. Weldon also pointed out that there is no way to verify that Russia has detargeted its missiles.