According to U.S. officials, the Pentagon is laying the groundwork to build a type of missile banned by a Cold War-era pact unless Russia abandons its own pursuit of the weapons, The Wall Street Journal informs.
The U.S. military’s preliminary research and development, previously undisclosed, is aimed at potentially reviving an arsenal of prohibited ground-based, intermediate-range missiles if Moscow continues violating the pact, the officials have added. The Journals adds that U.S. officials say they don’t want to end the Cold War-era accord, known as the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or the INF, but rather bring Russia back into compliance. The U.S. told Russia of its research project in recent weeks, according to U.S. officials, but said was ready to abandon it if Russia returns to compliance, The Journal notes.
“The idea here is we need to send a message to the Russians that they will pay a military price for violation of this treaty. We are posturing ourselves to live in a post-INF world…if that is the world the Russians want,” one U.S. official said.
A Russian official said Thursday that the Washington, not Moscow, has been violating the treaty through its missile-defense installations in Europe. The U.S. denies that claim. The official added that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said a U.S. treaty withdrawal would bring an “immediate and reciprocal” Russian response. In meetings in Brussels last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told allies that Washington was trying to use new leverage to push Moscow into compliance, noting that Washington had no plans to abandon the INF.
“Our effort is to bring Russia back into compliance. It is not to walk away from the treaty,” Mattis said last week.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force, or INF, Treaty was signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington on Dec. 8, 1987. By 1991, it eliminated more than 2,700 U.S. and Soviet missiles, including hundreds of American Pershing IIs and Soviet SS-20s. The U.S. gave up 846 missile systems and the Soviets scrapped 1,846 systems.
Be the first to comment