USE OF SATELLITE IMAGERY IN SUPPORT OF ON-SITE INSPECTIONS:
LESSONS FROM A FIELD EXERCISE

In March 2023, the United Nations Institute of Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) conducted a field experiment, simulating an on-site inspection to verify the absence of nuclear warheads at a military site. As part of the experiment, UNIDIR, in collaboration with Open Nuclear Network (ONN), tested the applicability of commercially available satellite imagery to support the inspection. The acquired results from the experiment, as well as the methodology, monitoring arrangement and the discovered limitations and opportunities for future use of commercially available satellite imagery in support of on-site inspections, will be discussed in this paper. The on-site inspection experiment is part of UNIDIR’s continuous research on ways and means for disarmament verification. For the March experiment, the team tested a scenario that assumed an agreed arms control treaty between nuclear-weapon States. The treaty stipulates that all of the States’ non-strategic nuclear warheads should be removed from sites where the means of their delivery are located. All such warheads should be securely stored at an appropriate facility, away from the possible launching sites. The verification efforts will then focus on ensuring no nuclear weapons are deployed at the launching military sites. UNIDIR calls such a scenario a ‘zero-deployed’ arrangement since neither party will have its non-strategic weapons ready for immediate use.