NNSA participates as a member of the implementation committees responsible for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty with Russia (the Moscow Treaty).

Under START, the United States and Russia (as the nuclear weapons successor state to the Soviet Union) were required to reduce by 2001 their numbers of strategic nuclear delivery systems to no more than 1,600 each (with no more than 6,000 attributed warheads), and not exceed these levels through START expiration on December 5, 2009.

The Moscow Treaty requires the United States and Russia to make further reductions so that their operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads do not exceed 1,700-2,200 by December 31, 2012.  Both nations are on track to meet this obligation.  In addition to this treaty, President Bush directed in 2004 that the size of the overall nuclear weapons stockpile (both reserve and operationally deployed) be reduced nearly 50 percent by 2012.  That goal was met five years early, so he further directed that the stockpile be reduced almost 15 percent more by 2012. Currently, the stockpile is the smallest it has been since the Eisenhower administration.

NNSA supports policy development for the implementation of these and other potential treaties and agreements, and serves as a technical resource for the United States government concerning treaty implementation issues.