IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT
Secretary of State John Kerry highlighted U.S.-Russian arms control cooperation under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in a statement Friday on the fifth anniversary of the accord’s entry into force. “New START is more important now than when it went into effect. It gives us the confidence and level of oversight we need – and could not otherwise have – by allowing U.S. inspectors unprecedented access to Russian nuclear facilities,” Kerry said. “New START continues to be an area of cooperation and continued dialogue between the United States and Russia.”
Under New START, the U.S. and Russia must by Feb. 5, 2018, cap their nuclear arsenals at 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, 700 deployed strategic launchers and heavy bombers, and 800 deployed and non-deployed strategic launchers and heavy bombers. The treaty allows the U.S. to conduct on-site inspections at Russian nuclear weapons facilities and gives both countries “access to each other’s strategic nuclear delivery systems, warheads, and facilities,” the State Department said.
According to the State Department, the U.S. and Russia have sent and received over 10,300 notifications on the status of their strategic nuclear forces, performed 10 data exchanges on the location of weapons systems, and conducted 180 on-site inspections since the treaty’s February 2011 entry into force. Officials from the two countries also meet twice a year to discuss treaty implementation issues, “with no interruption of work due to other global crises causing friction in the bilateral relationship,” the State Department said.
“We expect the United States and Russia to meet the Treaty’s central limits when they take effect on February 5, 2018, and continue to call on Russia to join talks on further reductions to our nuclear arsenals,” Kerry said.
IN THE DOE
The Department of Energy is seeking to identify a business that can provide body armor for the agency’s Office of Inspector General’s Office of Investigations law enforcement missions, according to a request for quotes synopsis issued last week. Items requested include ballistic vests for men and women, carry bags, and concealable outer carrier vests. The presolicitation specifies that the business should be able to provide the “highly qualified certified” body armor within 30 days upon receipt of the award. Interested parties should respond by Feb. 16 on www.fedconnect.net.
IN THE INDUSTRY
National Security Technologies (NSTec), the managing and operating contractor at the Nevada National Security Site, has named Roy Bridges and Raffi Papazian as vice presidents. Bridges, previously vice president for strategic management, is now NSTec’s vice president for operations. Papazian, previously the director of defense experimentation and stockpile stewardship (DE&SS), is now the vice president for program integration, responsible for integrating program execution across company directorates.
Bridges, a former astronaut who piloted the space shuttle Challenger on a mission in 1985, previously served as commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, director of NASA’s Langley Research Center, and director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, NSTec said. Papazian previously managed NSTec’s portfolio of activities in the Mission and Project Division and served as the test group director of the test office in the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Dynamic Experimentation Division until 2006.
