The U.S. Will Develop Newly Unbanned Weapons as a Key Missile Treaty Ends

A JASSM missile undergoing launch tests from a F-16 fighter over the Gulf of Mexico, 2018. Image: SMgst Michael Jackson (Air Force)

 

The United States is planning to quickly develop two new missiles previously banned by a 30-year-old arms control treaty. America’s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, sparked by allegations of Russian cheating, is paving the way for Washington to match Russian weapons with new missiles of its own. The U.S. will test the missiles as soon as this August, within days of the end of the treaty.

The two missile types, a ground-launched cruise missile and an intermediate-range ballistic missile, were previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The INF Treaty, signed in 1987, banned land-based missiles with ranges from 310 to 3,420 miles.

Although the treaty itself didn’t ban actual nuclear weapons, it removed key nuclear delivery systems from the inventories of both the U.S. and U.S.S.R., dramatically lowering the number of nuclear weapons deployed in Europe.

Russian Media Threatens US With 100 Megaton “Doomsday Device” After INF Debacle

With the INF treaty all but dead, one Russian paper warns of “a situation even more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis.” And the government paper says it “cannot exclude” Russia deploying a “100 megaton nuclear…Doomsday weapon” off the US coast. #ReadingRussia pic.twitter.com/iJxOXpXWmE

— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) February 4, 2019

 

Russian media has threatened the United States with a 100 megaton nuclear weapon after a key arms treaty failed.  The doomsday device was a threat lobbed by Russian state-sponsored media and the Russian military after the U.S. announced that the country will exit the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaties.

Although treaties don’t mean much (their success hinges only on tyrants’ willingness to follow them and obey the words inked on paper anyway) the U.S. mainstream media seems to be afraid. According to MSN, the treaty was the only thing standing between Russia and another Cold War. It was “one of the last barriers to a full-on Cold War-like arms race in Europe – and there’s already talk of a nuclear doomsday device visiting the U.S.,” wrote MSN. The treaty was useless, however, as Russia disobeyed it.

Trump To Pull U.S. Out Of 1987 Nuclear Weapons Treaty With Russia

 

As Russia continues to outmaneuver the US by developing new ballistic missiles like the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile, as well as hypersonic weapons capable of carrying a nuclear payload, President Trump said Saturday that he plans to abandon a 1987 arms-control treaty that has (on paper, at least) prohibited the US and Russia from deploying intermediate-range nuclear missiles as Russia has continued to “repeatedly violate” its terms according to the president, the Associated Press reports.

“We’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement,” Trump said Saturday after a campaign rally in Elko, Nevada. “We’re going to terminate the agreement.”

US Threatens To “Take Out Russia’s Nukes” If Needed

FILE IMAGE: Sputnik / Sergey Pyatakov

 

The US would work on options to “take out” new Russian missiles if they become operational, US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison stated accusing Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) treaty during an October 2 press briefing.

Russia Again Flight Tests New ICBM to Treaty-Violating Range

Russia conducted a flight test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this month that some U.S. officials and security analysts say is a new violation of Moscow’s arms control treaty commitments.

The March 18 flight test of a new RS-26 missile is part of a large-scale nuclear arms buildup by Russia and is raising concerns about treaty compliance, said U.S. officials familiar with details of the missile test.