US Ground Launched Cruise Missile 'Militarily Unnecessary' - Arms Control

The US should honor its commitments under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and not develop and field a new generation of mobile ground launched cruise missiles because they are not a military necessity and would draw funding away from more important US Department of Defense programs, the Arms Control Association (ACA) said in a report.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The INF, signed by the United States and the then Soviet Union in 1987, bans nuclear and conventional ground-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers (300-3,400 miles).

"Development of a new treaty-prohibited GLCM is militarily unnecessary, would suck funding from other military programs for which there are already requirements, divide NATO, and give Russia an easy excuse to publicly repudiate the [INF] treaty and deploy large numbers of non-compliant missiles without any constraints," the ACA said on Monday.

In testimony before the US Congress earlier in 2017, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that Russia has deployed GLCMs thereby violating the INF, ACA noted. The House and Senate agreed with the Pentagon and has authorized funding for research and development of a mobile GLCM.

Pentagon officials are concerned that other nations not bound by the 1987 treaty are pulling ahead of the US in GLCM technology. Both China and Iran field GCLMs; China's is known as the DF-10A, Iran's is the Soumar.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied allegations of INF treaty violations earlier this year and said Russia remains committed to the accord. The Russian Foreign Ministry last April said that the deployment of US missile defense systems in Romania and Poland is prohibited under the INF treaty.