Pentagon Tests Ground-Launched Cruise Missile Previously Banned by INF Treaty

(Source: US Department of Defense; issued Aug. 19, 2019)

The US Defense Department yesterday tested its first conventionally-configured ground-launched cruise missile in decades. The Pentagon said it hit the target more than 500 km away, but operational ranges will likely be far longer. (DoD photo)

On Sunday, August 18, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, the Department of Defense conducted a flight test of a conventionally-configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, California.

The test missile exited its ground mobile launcher and accurately impacted its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight.

Data collected and lessons learned from this test will inform the Department of Defense's development of future intermediate-range capabilities.

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US Tests 1st Ground Missile Previously Banned in Dissolved Arms Treaty with Russia

PENTAGON --- The Pentagon says the U.S. military has tested a ground-based cruise missile with a range that would have been banned just three weeks ago.

The missile, launched Sunday at San Nicolas Island, California, "accurately impacted its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight," the Pentagon announced in a news release Monday.

"Data collected and lessons learned from this test will inform the Department of Defense's development of future intermediate-range capabilities," it added.

The United States previously was unable to pursue ground-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers because of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a decades-old arms control pact with Russia.

Washington withdrew from that pact on Aug. 2, citing years of Russian violations.

The Pentagon stressed that the cruise missile was configured to carry a conventional payload, not a nuclear weapon.

New Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has said that if the U.S. military develops a fully operational mobile ground-launched cruise missile system, he wants to see American ground-based intermediate-range conventional missiles deployed to Asia.

Speaking to reporters earlier this month on his first international trip as head of the Defense Department, Esper said the weapons were important due to the "the great distances" covered in the Indo-Pacific region.

"It's about time that we were unburdened by the treaty and kind of allowed to pursue our own interests, and our NATO allies share that view as well," Esper said.

He declined to discuss when or where in Asia the missiles could be deployed until the weapons were ready, but said he hoped the deployments come within months.

While analysts have primarily focused on what the INF treaty withdrawal means for signatory nations Russia and the United States, the change also allows the United States to strengthen its position against China.

Esper said more than 80 percent of China's missile inventory has a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

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