(The following fact sheet describing the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty was released by the State Department on May 16.)

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed on December 8, 1987 in Washington, D.C. by President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. It was ratified and entered into force on June 1, 1988 at the Moscow Summit.

The treaty eliminated an entire class of ground-launched intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles and their launchers and prohibits possession of such systems thereafter. It covers missile systems with ranges equal to or in excess of 500 kilometers (km), but not in excess of 5,500 km.

Under the terms of the treaty, all declared systems were eliminated within three years of entry into force of the treaty (May 31, 1991).

With the breakup of the former Soviet Union, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine assumed the roles of active implementors of the treaty for the former Soviet Union (FSU).

The treaty prohibits any party from producing or flight-testing any intermediate-range or shorter-range missile, the stages of such missiles or launchers for such missiles. The prohibitions are of indefinite duration, and apply to the U.S. and to all 12 successor states to the FSU.

The existing types of missile systems covered by the treaty included:

For the U.S.:

-- Pershing IA;

-- Pershing IB;

-- Pershing II; and

-- BGM-109G Ground-Launched Cruise Missile.

For the former Soviet Union:

-- SS-4;

-- SS-5;

-- SS-12;

-- SS-20;

-- SS-23; and

-- SSC-X-4 (Ground-Launched Cruise Missile).

The treaty contains an extensive and, for the time, an unprecedented regime of on-site inspections: baseline inspections, close-out inspections, short-notice inspections, elimination inspections and around-the-clock inspections by means of continuous monitoring at any facility at which the production or final assembly of a prohibited GLBM [Ground-Launched Ballistic Missile] occurred. The treaty inspection regime ends on May 31, 2001.

During each of the first three years after entry into force, each side was permitted to conduct 20 short-notice inspections. During each of the subsequent five years, each side was permitted 15 short-notice inspections, and during each of the last five years of the treaty's 13-year inspection regime, 10 short-notice inspections. During the entire 13 years of the inspection regime, the U.S. conducted a total of 851 inspections and the Soviet Union and, subsequently, its successor states conducted a total of 540 inspections.

During the baseline inspection period, which lasted 90 days, each facility declared under the treaty was inspected to confirm the data declared by each party to the treaty. A total of 31 facilities were declared in the U.S. and 133 in the former Soviet Union.

The first inspection conducted by the U.S. was on July 1, 1988, at the SS-20 Missile Operating Base at Rechitsa, in the former Soviet Union. On July 1, 1988, 50 inspectors from the Soviet Union arrived at Travis Air Force Base, California, to conduct inspections at: the former GLCM production facility at Air Force Plant 19 in San Diego, California; the GLCM training site at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; the GLCM training site at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; the Missile Storage Depot at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, and the Pueblo Army Depot in Colorado.

The treaty also provided for inspection of INF sites in the basing countries for U.S. and Soviet INF missiles. U.S. INF facilities were located in the United Kingdom, West Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Former Soviet INF sites were located in East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

The elimination of the last treaty-limited items was completed in May 1991 at Longhorn, Texas and at Kapustin Yar, Russia. Over the course of the three-year elimination period, the U.S. eliminated 2,332 treaty-limited items, and the former Soviet Union (FSU) eliminated 5,439 treaty-limited items. These included, for the U.S., 846 missiles and 289 launchers. For the FSU, 1,846 missiles and 825 launchers were eliminated. These totals included, for the U.S.:

-- 169 Pershing IA Missiles;

-- 234 Pershing II Missiles; and

-- 443 BGM-109 Ground Launched Cruise Missiles.

For the FSU:

-- 149 SS-4 Missiles;

-- 6 SS-5 Missiles;

-- 718 SS-12 Missiles

-- 654 SS-20 Missiles;

-- 239 SS-23 Missiles; and

-- 80 SSC-X-4 Cruise Missiles.

Inspection by means of continuous monitoring has been conducted at the former Pershing II production facility at Magna, Utah and at the former SS-20 final missile assembly facility at Votkinsk, Udmurt Republic, Russian Federation. The treaty permits the continuous presence of up to 30 inspectors of the inspecting party. The purpose of their continuous monitoring is to ensure that the inspected party is not producing missiles banned by the treaty.

The treaty established the Special Verification Commission (SVC) to promote the objectives and implementation of the provisions of the treaty. The SVC has met in Geneva 26 times over the course of 13 years. The primary task of the initial meetings was to establish the specific procedures that would be used to conduct inspections under the treaty, including continuous monitoring. These procedures were codified in a memorandum of agreement, which has been the basic implementing document to the INF treaty. To date, the parties have concluded 16 amendments to this document clarifying specific inspection arrangements. Because the treaty and its prohibitions are of indefinite duration, the SVC can be convened under the provisions of the treaty at the request of any party to the treaty.