The United States conducted flight tests of a cruise missile, which was previously banned by the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF Treaty) - its range exceeds 500 km. This is stated in the message of the Pentagon.
“The Department of Defense conducted flight tests of a ground-based cruise missile of a conventional (non-nuclear) configuration on the island of San Nicholas, California. The test missile left the ground mobile launcher and hit the target precisely after more than 500 km of flight, ”RIA Novosti reports.
It is noted that this missile is a land variation of the Tomahawk cruise missile, which was previously used by the United States several times when launching from the ships of the Navy.
Recall that the agreement forbade the production, testing and deployment of land-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5.5 thousand km. However, in the fall of 2018, the United States announced its intention to withdraw from it. US President Donald Trump said that this decision was dictated by Russia's "violations" of its obligations, but no specific charges were presented.
Subsequently, the United States said that the agreement violates the Russian 9M729 missile. Then the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation took an unprecedented step at all - the ministry organized a briefing for foreign military attachés, within the framework of which the characteristics of the missile that corresponded to the INF Treaty were demonstrated. However, representatives of the United States and several other NATO countries ignored the briefing.
At the same time, Russia had claims to fulfill the treaty by the Americans. Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that the American Mk41 missile defense systems can be used without launch for launching Tomahawk cruise missiles. According to the INF Treaty, the deployment of such launchers is prohibited, however, Mk41 are in some European countries.
Despite Russia's attempts to negotiate mutual claims and prevent the INF Treaty’s rupture, on August 2, the agreement finally lost its force. Moscow stated that the accusations against Russia were only a pretext for the destruction of the agreement.
“The unilateral, on a far-fetched pretext, US withdrawal from the INF Treaty and the destruction of one of the fundamental documents in the field of arms control have seriously complicated the situation in the world and created fundamental risks for everyone. I emphasize: the responsibility for what happened lies entirely with the American side, ”said Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 5.
The past tests only confirm the fact that the US withdrawal from the INF Treaty was planned, said Alexander Sherin, first deputy chairman of the State Duma’s defense committee.
“The United States, apparently, has reached the stage of arms development when it is necessary to conduct practical firing, testing, that is, it is necessary to leave the laboratory for a training ground. It is for this that they initiated the question of withdrawing from this treaty under the INF Treaty, allegedly because the Russian Federation is to blame. Years go by in order to carry out such development, it is at least five years, at least, ”the deputy stressed in a conversation with RT.
“That is, all this time, the Americans were engaged in such developments, and when the day, time, moment came when they needed to go on to the tests, they absolutely cynically, unscrupulously accuse Russia of allegedly causing us to withdraw from this agreement, and right there, the Americans are already starting to test the rocket, which they had long been ready for, ”Sherin stated.
“It was a matter of time before Trump announced his withdrawal.”
Funds for the development of such missiles were laid down in the US budget even before the announcement of an exit from the INF Treaty, recalled an expert at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Konstantin Blokhin.
“There was talk in Congress, in the corridors of power in Washington for about five to seven years about this exit. Prior to the withdrawal from this treaty, the US budget was allocated for R&D, and it was a matter of time before Trump announced this withdrawal, ”he told RT.
So, on August 18, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke about the funds prepared for these purposes in the US budget.
“In fact, eight months, almost a year before this decision was made, funds appeared in the budget for the development of such missiles, approved, allocated and aimed at starting the development of these missiles,” he said on the Russia 24 television channel.
According to Blokhin, Washington aimed to exit the INF Treaty in the early 2000s.
“Washington used only criticism of Russia to withdraw from this agreement, and the agreement was already a foregone conclusion, and was a foregone conclusion even earlier. I think the Americans aimed to exit the INF Treaty sometime in the early 2000s. This fact demonstrates that what Russia said is true, ”the expert emphasized.
According to Alexei Podberezkin, Director of the Center for Military-Political Research at MGIMO, this is not the first time the United States has acted in this way - before withdrawing from the agreement on limiting missile defense systems in 2002, they also began research and development (R&D) in advance.
“They act as they always did. As with the ABM agreement: as long as they developed - R&D, were at stages that were not prohibited by the agreement, as soon as there was a transition from the R&D stage to the testing stage - this is already beyond the scope of the agreement - they withdraw from the agreement ", He recalled in a conversation with RT.
Recall that Putin warned of a possible retaliatory action by Russia, which would be "exclusively reciprocal, mirror-like."
“This concerns the development, production and deployment of medium and shorter-range ground-based missiles. We will not place them in those regions and until medium-range and shorter-range missiles of American production are deployed there, ”the Russian president emphasized.