After ending the Intermediate Range Forces Treaty (INF), the U.S. tested a new ground-launched cruise missile.

The missile was once banned under the INF treaty and looks like a tomahawk cruise missile.

The test was likely a response to U.S. accusations that Russia as been flouting the treaty for some time.

The U.S. has tested a new ground launched cruise missile just weeks after a treaty banning them expired. The new missile, previously banned under the Intermediate Range Forces Treaty (INF), was launched yesterday, August 18th, 2019, off the coast of California. The U.S. walked away from the INF Treaty after repeatedly accusing Russia of violating the treaty.

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The missile test took place on August 18th, 2019, on San Nicolas Island. Part of California’s Channel Islands, San Nicolas is a military reservation and part of Naval Base Ventura County. According to the Department of Defense , “The test missile exited its ground mobile launcher and accurately impacted its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight. Data collected and lessons learned from this test will inform the Department of Defense's development of future intermediate-range capabilities.”

The missile looks like a Tomahawk cruise missile, a bullet-shaped, stubby-winged, low flying missile first used in the 1991 Gulf War. The Tomahawk was adapted into land, air, and sea-launched versions, for use against land targets and ships. A land-based version, the BGM-109G Gryphon, was stationed in Europe in the 1980s until the ratification of the Intermediate Range Forces Treaty in 1987.

Gryphon land-based cruise missile launcher. The Gryphon launch trailer and missiles were destroyed according to the terms of the 1987 INF Treaty. Wikimedia Commons

The INF Treaty, negotiated between the U.S. and Soviet Union in the late 1980s, was designed to remove intermediate range nuclear weapons from the arsenals of both countries. The INF treaty required both countries to destroy ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500 kilometers (310 miles) to 5,500 kilometers (3,417) miles. Thousands of missiles were scrapped on both sides and for the first time, an entire class of nuclear delivery systems was banned.

The 9M729 cruise missile. Sergei Bobylev Getty Images

In December 2018, the U.S. formally accused Russia of fielding a new ground launched cruise missile, known as 9M729 or “Iskander M” in Russia, and the U.S. intelligence community and NATO as SSC-8, or “Screwdriver.” In January, Moscow held an event designed to convince skeptics 9M729 was within treaty limits, but the U.S. and NATO were not convinced.

The missile is likely a land-based version of Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missile, or TLAM, Block IV E. Block IV E is designed to launch from a Mark 41 vertical launch system silo on a warship. The cruise missile is powered by a turbofan engine, the same type of engine that powers civilian airliners and military aircraft, only scaled down to fit in a missile with a 21-inch diameter. A fuel efficient engine, subsonic flight profile, and internal fuel supply gives Block IV E a range of 900 nautical miles, or 1,000 miles.

The Tomahawk’s basic design is 40 years old, but the Pentagon has made periodic updates to the guidance system and electronics. Today’s Tomahawk is guided by GPS and has the ability to store coordinates for several targets in its electronic brain. If friendly strikes destroy its primary target, it can take a picture of the damage done and loiter nearby until planners decide to re-attack the target or send the missile to attack an alternate. The missile also features a 1,000 pound blast fragmentation warhead.

The U.s. has committed to fielding two new missiles that were banned by the INF Treaty, a new cruise missile and a new intermediate range ballistic missile. Contrary to name the INF Treaty didn’t ban nuclear warheads, just the missiles that delivered them to targets. but the U.S. has also said the new missiles will not carry nuclear warheads—for now anyway.

A sailor performs maintenance on a bank of several Mark 41 vertical launch system silos on the guided missile destroyer USS Kidd. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob Milham

This past weekend's missile test, according to Defense News , was launched from a land-based Mark 41 launcher. The U.S. has dozens of Mark 41 launchers in Romania and Poland as part of a regional ballistic missile defense system, one designed to protect Europe from missile attack. Russia has claimed that the Mark 41 launchers themselves were INF Treaty violations, as they could carry TLAMs instead of ballistic missile interceptors. U.S. missile experts have responded in the past claiming the launchers deployed in Europe were a version incapable of launching cruise missiles.

The death of the INF Treaty is a boon for watchers of the Asia-Pacific region, where China has hundreds if not thousands of short-, medium-, and intermediate-range missiles with both conventional and nuclear warheads. China, not a signatory to the INF treaty, developed ballistic missiles as a cheaper alternative to tactical airpower, particularly long range bombers, and in a war experts believe China could shower U.S. bases in the region with missiles , shutting them down and rolling American military power back as far as Hawaii.

New cruise and intermediate-range missiles could threaten Chinese missiles, taking them out before they can launch against U.S. forces.



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