WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The 1987 US-Russian INF Treaty prohibits the use or development of ground-launched cruise missiles within the range of 300 to 3,400 miles.
"Russia has violated the INF Treaty," Garamendi said. "Now that they have, we are preparing a defensive mechanism and there is talk of America building intermediate range missiles."
Russia has rejected US claims that it has violated the INF Treaty. The US State Department began reporting alleged Russian violations of the INF Treaty in 2014, and in 2015 the Defense Department provided Congress with a classified report outlining possible responses to the reported violations.
"What the Committee is concerned about is that Russia has violated the INF, so what are the countermeasures, how we defend [ourselves], and secondly do we have our own," Garamendi explained.
He further argued that "Russia has managed to set off a new arms race."
The proposal considering such countermeasures will be addressed later on Wednesday during the House Armed Services Committee markup of the 2017 defense spending bill.
If agreed to, the proposal would direct the Defense Department to study the benefits of US conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 300 to 3,400 miles.
