This week, Vladimir Putin had to remind what kind of advanced weapons Russia is developing. This was done in connection with the USA's withdrawal from the INF Treaty. Moreover, also this week, the U.S. President's NSA, Bolton, stated that the treaty expires because of China, that is, not because of Russia, as the U.S. stated last year. Immediately after the death of the INF Treaty, the head of the Pentagon, Esper, and Secretary of State Pompeo went on an Asian tour. It is assumed that American missiles may appear closer to Beijing.
These are the last exhibition items at the Central Armed Forces Museum. The entire lineup — hundreds of such installations- were disposed of under the INF Treaty. The unique mobile missile system is called "Pioneer" not only because it's the first one in the country, but because it's always ready. It takes an hour to deploy and launch it and another hour to fold it up and leave. It's the "thunderstorm of Europe". It takes a missile ten minutes to reach any European capital. At the same time, the system is reliable. There weren't any accidents over the entire period of usage. Its construction is simple. The designers assure that its production can be restored right now. And this can be relevant again. After the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the treaty, the entire system of global security has changed. Following the Security Council meeting, the Russian president made a special statement on this.
Vladimir Putin: "The U.S. is fully responsible for what happened. Instead of a thoughtful discussion of international security issues, the U.S. simply tossed out many years of efforts to reduce the likelihood of a major military conflict, involving nuclear weapons as well".
Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia: “Actually, it'll lead to chaos because other countries will also respond to that. Such an arms race can be held substantially and increasingly".
Gorbachev and Reagan signed the treaty in 1987. Under the treaty, a whole class of nuclear missiles was disposed of, the range of which is from 300 to 3,400 miles. Europe was crammed with them. There were American Pershings and Tomahawks in Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands. There were Soviet Temps, Okas, and Pioneers along the Western borders of the USSR and its allies under the Warsaw Pact. They decided to dispose of all of them. As a result, the U.S. disposed of 846 missiles, the Soviet Union disposed of exactly 1000 more. The U.S. withdraws from the nuclear treaty. But Russia is fully responsible for that. A cold war is back in Europe. It's not today that the treaty died. Moscow has long been using prohibited weapons. In the West, the 9M729 missile was blamed for violating the treaty. The Russian Defense Ministry even showed it off to foreign military attaches, which rarely happens, for them to realize that it simply doesn't have enough fuel to carry the load beyond 300 miles. But representatives of the U.S. and other NATO countries didn't come to the presentation.
Sergei Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister: "The 9M729 land-based cruise missile, the existence of which we never hid, wasn't designed or tested for the prohibited range. We've strongly denied and deny the accusations by the U.S., which aren't supported by any proof".
And here are some facts. The U.S. Congress quite officially granted the Pentagon $58 million "for the development of a medium-range land-based missile." Moreover — as can be seen in the images from space — a Raytheon Corporation defense plant already cleared a place for new production facilities in Arizona. It happened while the treaty was still in force.
Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia: "I think, and hopefully, many experts agree with me, that they do that to secure their supremacy in the world. We know what the Americans violated. And we specified those issues. Those three issues were launch facilities, target missiles, and UAVs".
The U.S. is already using all of them. Combat UAVs are a prohibited weapon by all of its characteristics. There are anti-aircraft systems which can not only hit missiles but also launch them. These MK-41 systems are already deployed in Romania and Poland. Now, the U.S. plans to deploy them in Japan as well. The Pacific tour by the new U.S. Secretary of Defense is dedicated to this.
Mark Esper, U.S. Secretary of Defense: "We firmly believe that no country can or should dominate the region. We strongly oppose China's disturbing, aggressive, destabilizing behavior".
In the 80s, when the USSR and the U.S. signed the treaty, China was only testing its first missiles. And now, no parade or exercises by the People's Liberation Army of China can do without Dongfeng missile launchers, which can be translated as "Eastern Wind".
Fu Cong, head of the department of the arms control and disarmament: "We're particularly concerned about the statements by some senior U.S. administration officials that Washington plans to deploy land-based intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region. We'll have to take countermeasures".
Now, China is the undisputed leader in the number of such missiles. It has as much as 2,000 missiles. South and North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Yemen have a considerable number of missiles. But none of these countries has ever deployed land-based systems outside its borders. The U.S.'s aggressive policy could upset the balance. The Russian president warned about it in advance.
Vladimir Putin: "Russia will not deploy intermediate-range or short-range weapons, neither in Europe or other regions until there are similar American-made weapons in those regions".
We have everything for a mirror response. Here's a bomber dropping the X-101 cruise missile. Its accuracy is within 30 feet, its range is 3,400 miles. The treaty doesn't prohibit air- and sea-based missiles. And this is a launch of a Kalibr missile from a cruiser. They can be fired in volleys. Military operations in Syria demonstrated the effectiveness of such missile attacks. And there's also the most advanced hypersonic airborne system, Kinzhal. It's lightweight and can be installed even on fighters. Its range is over 620 miles. Just at this weekend, the Kinzhal was demonstrated at the army games ArMY in the contest of aviation darts. Here are Zircon missiles, made for the fleet. So far, we have only a few shots from the workshop where they're made. But the missiles are already in service. All of those systems can be made to be land-based. But Russia still uses diplomatic language.
Andrey Grigoriev and Oleg Makarov for Vesti.
