The United States Nuclear Risk Reduction Center (NRRC) is the national center for information exchange required by 14 arms control treaties and security-building agreements between the United States and more than 55 foreign governments and international organizations. It consists of a 24-hour watch center, operating 365 days a year and staffed by Department of State Foreign Service Officers, Civil Servants, and technical support personnel as part of the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. Since its inception, the NRRC’s role has been to contribute to transparency and mutual understanding through timely and accurate information exchanges. The exchange of weapons data and other information with our treaty partners, through arms control agreements and treaties, is a key element in building strategic stability and military confidence globally, which in turn bolsters U.S. national security.

The NRRC handles notification regimes for conventional, nuclear, chemical, and cyber arms. NRRC Watch Officers translate notifications to the United States from Russian, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. These messages include inspection notifications, exchanges of data regarding strategic offensive arms, prior notifications of major exercises or unit restructuring and other treaty-required communications. The NRRC policy staff advises Department of State and interagency policy and operational offices on government-to-government communications including development of standard operating procedures, training programs, and information technology used in telecommunications. The NRRC staff participates in international negotiations on communications for arms control and security-related notifications. Consultations occur regularly among the U.S. NRRC and its counterparts in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW); to improve how the centers perform their missions.

The following treaties and agreements generate the most notification exchanges at the NRRC. For more information on the history of these agreements, visit: //2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc.

New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)
Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT)
Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE)
Confidence- and Security-Building Measures – Vienna Document 2011 (CSBM-VD ‘11)
Open Skies Treaty (OS)
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Additional Protocol
The Hague Code of Conduct (HCOC)
Ballistic Missile Launch Agreement (BML)
Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Treaty (PNE)
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)
Wyoming MOU of 1989 and Strategic Data Exchange (SDX)
Cyber Security Protocol