Modernizing NATO's Long-range Theater Nuclear Forces

Download or read book Modernizing NATO's Long-range Theater Nuclear Forces written by Thomas L. McNaugher and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meeting in December 1979, the NATO Foreign and Defense Ministers decided to modernize NATO's long-range theater nuclear force (LRTNF) by deploying, in Europe, 108 Pershing II medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) launchers and 464 ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs). NATO Secretary General Joseph Luns announced that these systems would be based in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Italy, and the United Kingdom, and possibly Belgium and the Netherlands. Attaching 'great importance to the role of arms control in contributing to a more stable military relationship between East and West and in advancing the process of detente, ' the Ministers emphasized that, in parallel with the deployment decision, they wished to continue arms control efforts designed to achieve 'a more stable overall nuclear balance at lower levels of nuclear weapons, ' to involve theater as well as strategic nuclear forces. A Special Consultative Group was created to continue work on the arms control aspects of the LRTNF issue. With this decision NATO's member states sought to resolve an issue that had been raised nearly three years before, and that had commanded increasing amounts of attention ever since.