The US has tested a ground-based medium-range missile following its withdrawal from the INF disarmament agreement. The ballistic missile had been fired from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California towards the Pacific, said a spokesman for the base. As early as mid-August, the US had tested a cruise missile.
According to the dpa news agency, the test flight recently violated the disarmament agreements with Russia. He was therefore only possible because the US had terminated the INF agreement to abandon land-based medium-distance systems in August.
The reason for this step was the accusation that Russia had violated the agreement for years with a system. This should be able to fire cruise missiles that can be equipped with nuclear warheads and fly more than 2000 kilometers. Moscow rejects this and gives the range of the system with less than 500 kilometers.
The INF Treaty prohibited both sides from producing, testing and owning ground-based ballistic missiles and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5500 kilometers.
Test should support development
Information from the US Department of Defense confirmed that the missile test would have violated the provisions of the INF Treaty: The prototype was therefore flown more than 500 kilometers and then plunged into the open sea. Findings from the test would assist the Department of Defense in "developing future middle-range capabilities."
Ballistic missiles can be equipped with conventional, chemical, biological or nuclear warheads. According to the Department of Defense, the missile tested was a "conventionally configured" one.
In contrast to cruise missiles, the propulsion phase ends with ballistic missiles after a certain time. They then follow a trajectory that is influenced by gravity and air resistance. This so-called free-flight phase can be up to ten times as long as the path traveled by the rocket with propulsion.
Russia and China had warned of a new arms race following the first missile test in the US following the suspension of the INF Treaty in August and requested a special session of the UN Security Council. Moscow evaluated the test flight at that time as proof that the US had planned the phase-out of the INF disarmament agreement from a long-time perspective.
Hopes for new effective agreements on arms control are scarce. The reason for the termination of the contract by the United States is also the fact that the INF Treaty tied only Americans and Russians, but not emerging powers such as China. China now has nearly 2,000 ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that would fall under the agreement.
