Client:
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)

Contract Value:
$24 million

Contract Term:
September 2002—
September 2006

Parsons Responsibilities:
program management; management of Russian subcontractors; Contracting
Officer’s Representative for verification of
missile elimination, safety, quality, permitting,
licensing,
equipment certification, cost, scheduling, and contract administration

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991, (renamed the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program in 1993) was designed to help the countries of the former Soviet Union destroy nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction and associated infrastructure, and establish verifiable safeguards against the proliferation of those weapons. Since its inception, the program has substantially reduced the weapons of mass destruction threat by helping to better account for weapons previously aimed at United States and by reducing their delivery systems.

In 1998, to meet the requirements of the CTR, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) resources, expertise, and capabilities were combined to create the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). In September 2002, as part of the new Cooperative Threat Reduction Program Integrating Contract (CTRIC), Parsons received its first Russian missile elimination project to transport, disassemble, and destroy up to forty SS-N-20 Sea-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs).

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Parsons is the prime contractor to the DTRA and is the primary interface with the Russian Aviation and Space Administration (RASA) and the Russian Munitions Agency (RMA). Parsons is responsible for safety, cost, schedule, quality of work, issuing subcontracts, and supervising. To perform the physical work and provide technical expertise, Parsons has fixed-price contracts with three Russian subcontractors: State Rocket Center-Makeyev Design Bureau, Zlatoust Machinery Plant (ZMZ), and Federal Scientific and Production Center (FNPTs) in Altai.

To date, Parsons has disassembled seven SLBMs. Three more are scheduled for disassembly this year and have been delivered to the disassembly site. This is the only CTRIC project that is actively destroying weapons of mass destruction in Russia. SLBMs were capable of carrying ten nuclear warheads each, and a typhoon-class submarine could carry twenty SLBMs.

Parsons, with primary support from Makeyev, coordinates with the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense (RF MOD) and Russian Federation Navy to obtain the release of missiles from storage in Nenoksa. This includes transferring custody of missiles from operations agencies. Makeyev provides proof to the RF MOD of the final disposition and decommissioning of all SLBM components.

Left: Transporter delivering a first stage solid rocket motor (SRM) to the burn stand. Right: First stage SRM on burn stand for firing/elimination.

The missiles are transported in isothermal railcars from Nenoksa to the ZMZ, where they are disassembled into seven major components. ZMZ disassembles ten SLBMs per year (nominally). This includes direct handling, ordnance and pyrotechnic removal, disassembly of the missiles, and technical support services for the disassembly. The fuel and oxidizer are removed from each SLBM, and the tanks are neutralized.

The SLBMs' solid propellant stages, including solid rocket motors and hot-gas generators, are transported in isothermal railcars from the ZMZ to the FNPT in Altai. The nozzles from the solid rocket motors are removed, and the motors are ignited without nozzles at their burn stand. Auxiliary motors and pyrotechnic charges are also eliminated.

Disassembled/eliminated nozzle from third stage SRM.

Parsons and the Russian subcontractors cooperate to verify that the missiles have been eliminated. Parsons’ project manager is the Contracting Officer’s Representative for on-site verification of missile elimination.

To oversee and manage this effort, Parsons has offices in Moscow, Miass, and Biysk, Russia. The environmental/permitting expert and the project, safety, operations and project controls managers work out of the main office in Miass, which is in the Chelyabinsk Region of the Ural Mountains. Parsons also has an operations manager in Biysk, which is in the Altai Region south of Novosibirsk. A Moscow office provides support services of subcontract management, procurement, finance, and payroll. All offices have highly skilled, locally hired staff who have proven to be motivated and essential members of the project.

The combined teamwork of Parsons’ management and oversight, and the technical expertise of our Russian subcontractors is a huge success story. Despite minor delays in the beginning of the project, by the end of this year we will have zero schedule variance and cost variance. Technical expertise from our U.S. subcontractors, ATK Thiokol and Los Alamos Technology Associates (LATA), has greatly assisted in the areas of safety, operations, training, licensing/permitting, and environmental issues. Most important, there have been zero safety incidents, even though the activities involved are extremely hazardous.

Project staff has become very involved in the communities in which they work and live. Through the cash donations of the project staff, Parsons, and ATK Thiokol, the project established a Russian Charity Fund, which allows non-cash donations to be made every 6 months to local charities in the three cities where Parsons has offices. The first donation—$4,000 worth of appliances, clothing, and medical equipment—is now being disbursed to a children’s orphanage and ambulance service in the city of Miass.

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