Tuesday, August 20th, 2019 04:52
translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise
New US missile: Moscow denounces "escalation of military tensions"
Moscow, Russia | Russia on Tuesday accused the United States of "escalating military tensions" after the announcement of their first mid-range missile test since the Cold War, a result of the end of the INF disarmament treaty.
Less than a month after the expiry of this text that abolishes the use - by Russia and the United States only - of land-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5500 kilometers, the arms race seems to be revived between the two rivals of the Cold War.
The successful US test was carried out Sunday from San Nicolas Island off California (west) at 14:30 (2130 GMT), according to the Pentagon, which said it was is a "variant of a Tomahawk ground-to-ground attack missile".
Images published by the US military show the missile fired near the shore, from a Mark 41 vertical launch system.
"We are saddened by all that. The United States is blatantly on the way to escalating military tensions, but we will not give in to provocation, "Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday.
According to Riabkov, the "extremely tight deadline" it took for the United States to successfully carry out this test of a new missile after the end of the INF treaty demonstrates that Washington had long been preparing for the demise of this text signed between the two countries.
According to the diplomat, the use of Tomahawk and Mark-41 means that "these systems will be used for launching not only missiles interceptors, but also cruise missiles", which have a long range.
"Not listening to" Russia
After six months of deaf dialogue, Russia and the United States took note in early August of the end of the intermediate-range nuclear weapons (INF) treaty, which was signed at the end of the Cold War in 1987 and put an end to the Euromissile crisis, triggered by the deployment in Europe of Soviet SS-20 nuclear warheads.
The treaty was denounced by US President Donald Trump on February 1, then by Moscow the next day, the two countries accusing each other of violating it.
The Americans are questioning the Russian missile 9M729 with a range according to them of 1500 km, which Moscow denies, insisting that his new missile has a maximum range of "480 kilometers".
The United States has long deployed on-board mid-range cruise missiles, and they are generally fired from Mark 41 systems. What is new with the Sunday test is that the launch system was installed on the ground. The missile is conventional, but any missile can subsequently be equipped with a nuclear warhead.
Visiting France on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated that Moscow would not deploy new missiles until Washington does.
At a joint press conference with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, he accused the Americans of not "listening" to Moscow. "Europeans have an interest in listening to us and reacting," he said.
In early August, Putin had already called Washington to a "serious dialogue" on disarmament to "avoid chaos." He had then proposed a moratorium on the deployment of nuclear weapons prohibited by the INF Treaty.
There is now only one bilateral nuclear agreement between Moscow and Washington: the START treaty, which keeps the nuclear arsenals of both countries well below the level of the Cold War. It expires in 2021.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/novator-9m729-the-russian-missile-broke-inf-treatys-back-23547
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And, as the experts warn us, Russia's Skyfall missiles - light enough to go long distances -
would not work on fuel but on heating air. This would essentially make them flying
drty bombs that dischage radioactivity.
On a cheerier note, we can look forward to, by 2050, passenger long-distance
flights in adapted jets. Thus, Paris-Shanghai in 40 minutes:
source: Le Figaro
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