DTRA resumes Arms Control activities in Europe

Photo By Darnell Gardner | DTRA-Europe’s MAJ Aleks Farberov (far right), attends a briefing for a Russian-led Vienna Document Inspection near Training Area Munster, Germany on August, 11. Strict COVID-19 risk mitigation measures facilitated mission success.  

MUNSTER, GERMANY

09.15.2020

Courtesy Story

Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Munster, Germany - A small but significant event took place August, 10-12, in Northern Germany, between the United States and Russia. The first Vienna Document 2011 (VD11) On-site Inspection in the European Theater since the onset of the COVID pandemic. The era of the new normal thus began.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) retains the responsibility to support U.S. military installations when any VD11 inspection occurs that involves U.S. assets. VD11 is composed of politically binding confidence and security-building measures designed to increase openness and transparency of military activities in 57 European and Central Asian participating states. It includes a variety of information exchanges, on-site inspections, evaluation visits, observation visits, and other military-to-military contacts between the VD11 agreement participants.

In early August, the Russian Federation declared its intention to conduct an inspection in Northern Germany, in an area holding U.S. military assets. In response, DTRA-Europe stood up a liaison response team and began implementing aggressive COVID protocols developed during the preceding three months with U.S. Government Interagency, Host Nation representatives, and the Combatant Command to mitigate risk-to-force.

The collective efforts drove mission success across the board, allowing DTRA to resume unqualified treaty-related operations. In doing so, DTRA’s LNO team ensured that only they had contact with Russian inspectors and facilitated zero contact between Russian inspectors and U.S. forces redeploying from Exercise Defender Europe 2020, as well as guaranteeing that all U.S. rights and privileges under VD11 were preserved. More importantly, the effort fully validated the ability of U.S. inspectors to conduct safe and efficient treaty operations in a challenging real-world COVID environment, directly contributing to supporting the Combatant Commander’s theater objectives to align theater-wide operations and activities to achieve campaign plan objectives.

“In an era of Great Power Competition, the ability to overcome the constraints of a demanding health-risk environment will prove key to continued peace and stability throughout the region. The Russian Federation, who might have sought to exploit an uneven re-start of arms control activities in Europe, were properly held in-check by the outstanding efforts leveraged by the expanded collaboration with Interagency partners and Allies.” indicated DTRA’s Director for On-Site Inspection and Building Capacity, David Musgrave.

The mission represented an important milestone for treaty operations in the new environment where inspectors must practice physical distancing, wear masks, enhance sanitation, and forgo traditional processes in order to ensure health and safety for all participants.
At the conclusion of the inspection, the DTRA-Europe Team Chief MAJ Aleksandr Farberov said, “We knew this mission was an important one and our preparations delivered the expected results.” He continued by saying, “Glad to put this mission behind us and move on to reestablishing normal treaty ops once again.”

• Date Taken: 09.15.2020
• Date Posted: 10.02.2020 13:13
• Story ID: 379798
• Location: MUNSTER, DE