Posted on 08/23/2019 1:07:00 PM PDT by NorseViking
* U.S. test follows withdrawal from Cold War missile pact
* Putin orders threat analysis and reciprocal response
* Concern that U.S. aims to deploy new missile around world (Adds quotes, context, details)
MOSCOW, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered a like-for-like response to a recent U.S. missile test, which he said showed that Washington aimed to deploy previously banned missiles around the world.
The Pentagon said on Monday it had tested a conventionally-configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500 km (310 miles) of flight, its first such test since the demise of a landmark nuclear pact this month.
Washington formally withdrew from the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) on Aug. 2 after accusing Moscow of violating it, a charge dismissed by the Kremlin.
The pact had prohibited land-based missiles with a range of 310-3,400 miles, reducing the ability of both countries to launch a nuclear strike at short notice.
Putin told his Security Council on Friday that Russia could not stand idly by, and that U.S. talk of deploying new missiles in the Asia-Pacific region "affects our core interests as it is close to Russia's borders".
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said this month he was in favour of placing ground-launched intermediate-range missiles in Asia relatively soon, and Putin complained this week that the United States was now in a position to deploy its new land-based missile in Romania and Poland.
"All this leaves no doubts that the real intention of the United States (in exiting the INF pact) was to ... untie its hands to deploy previously banned missiles in different regions of the world," said Putin.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
And suddenly this matters since overstock guy began tweeting yesterday evening.
I think Russia and China should invest hundreds of billions of dollars in upgrading their weapons and arsenal.
What’s that? They have been? Oh, I’m sorry. Then they should triple what they are spending on their military to keep up. That’s what I meant.
(God Bless Ronald Reagan for showing us the way)
Didnt they just do a mini Chernobyl while testing missiles? Vlad has to ease off the vodka.
I have no idea how overstock is related to missile question.
Guess he was wrong after his nuke powered missile engine blew up in their faces ... ooopsie!
Coming to Venezuela and Cuba just off Florida coast very soon.
Don’t fall for that b.s. Putin is a communist scum bag who’s always had grand designs for elaborate world conquest and Empire for himself Soviet Union/Neo-Soviet Russia has never ever not once even honored the INF treaty or any cold war/post cold war treaty at all.
I like the idea of stationing the scientists within the blast zone. Makes quality control more important.
Ping
Vlad KNOWS these missiles will not be deployed in Europe.
And he has very, very few assets in the far east that would be threatened by them.
Based on your screen name you may have served in the Navy.
If you have been on anything from Spruance to Arleigh Burke to Tico you might know what Raytheon Mk. 41 VLS is. The ginormous land-based version of this thing is planned in Poland and Romania since 2004. What ordnance is typically fired from this thing? Yes, it is capable to fire Aegis anti-air missiles too but what did you fire from it most of the time?
I know hypocrisy is an integral part of imperial worldview but empire always faces resistance at one point.
Europe aside you say Russians shouldn’t care about INF in Asia because it won’t hit most of their assets but in this case US shouldn’t care about Russian INFs in Cuba. It won’t hit San-Francisco and Seattle too.
That poisonous ideology you speak of was spawned elsewhere and imposed on the Soviet Union. Russia today is not communist, though of course Russians will always be Russians.
The reciprocal response from Vlad is the absolute minimum the situation requires. The Russians have to earn our respect and they know it.
It’s appropriate for us to demonstrate capability which we know the Russians can reciprocate, at least approximately. We would be rash fools to demonstrate that which they presently can’t touch, in peacetime.
There should be some mutually-acceptable way to provide continuing verification that we aren’t about to load Tomahawks in the east European VLS installations.
Trust but verify works both ways.
I don’t think reliable process is possible nor it is needed anymore since INF treaty gone.
Bump for Hudson Bay and San Diego.
I see a lot of propaganda blaming America regarding this. Yet the only thing done was taking a legal Navy ship missile and now legally mounting it on a truck.
Russians have been cheating for at least 2 years developing forbidden missiles.
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