START I

START I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a <a href="/facts/Bilateral_treaty/qkGApHHM">bilateral treaty</a> between the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a> and the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a> on the reduction and the limitation of strategic offensive arms. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994. The treaty barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 <a href="/facts/Nuclear_warheads/QVdBcMdm">nuclear warheads</a> and a total of 1,600 intercontinental <a href="/facts/Ballistic_missiles/Pl6juY73">ballistic missiles</a> (<a href="/facts/ICBMs/0vKnj2Y7">ICBMs</a>) and bombers.
START negotiated the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history, and its final implementation in late 2001 resulted in the removal of about 80% of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence. Proposed by <a href="/facts/US_President/oMsfmLb1">US President</a> <a href="/facts/Ronald_Reagan/z6AaKAad">Ronald Reagan</a>, it was renamed START I after negotiations began on <a href="/facts/START_II/I9Hjlr4H">START II</a>.
The treaty expired on 5 December 2009.
On 8 April 2010, the replacement <a href="/facts/New_START/ThCYaQmB">New START</a> Treaty was signed in <a href="/facts/Prague/txpRNTUE">Prague</a> by US President <a href="/facts/Barack_Obama/76wUMgL1">Barack Obama</a> and Russian President <a href="/facts/Dmitry_Medvedev/0FsqCSfm">Dmitry Medvedev</a>. Following its ratification by the <a href="/facts/US_Senate/VyzXHE01">US Senate</a> and the <a href="/facts/Federal_Assembly_of_Russia/zuJkAF3P">Federal Assembly of Russia</a>, the treaty went into force on 5 February 2011, extending deep reductions of American and Soviet or Russian <a href="/facts/Strategic_nuclear_weapons/fmEv3E8R">strategic nuclear weapons</a> through February 2026.

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START I