As US plans to exit nuclear deal Russia declares it will develop missile launch

RUSSIA will race to develop two new land-based missile launch systems before 2021 to respond to Washington’s planned exit from a nuclear arms control pact, it said yesterday.

President Vladimir Putin said at the weekend that Russia had suspended the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which bans both nations from stationing short- and intermediate-range landbased missiles in Europe.

Moscow and Washington accuse each other of violating the treaty and Putin said Russia had acted after the US announced it was withdrawing from the pact. Washington had made clear it planned to start research, development and design work on new missile systems and Moscow would do the same, Putin said.

The Russian military should start work on creating land-based launch systems for an existing ship-launched cruise missile, the Kalibr, and for longer-range hypersonic missiles which travel at least five times the speed of sound, he said.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu yesterday ordered work to begin on developing the new systems. Shoigu, a close Putin ally, said he wanted the work completed by next year so the new systems were ready by 2021.

“From February 2, the US suspended its obligations under the INF treaty,” Shoigu told defence chiefs. “At the same time they are actively working to create a land-based missile with a range of more than 500km which is outside the treaty’s limits.”

Moscow denies flouting the 1987 pact. It says Washington is the one violating it and has accused the US of inventing a false pretext to exit a treaty it wanted to leave anyway to develop new missiles. Washington denies that.

US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood told a UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva yesterday that the US would reconsider its withdrawal from the INF treaty “should Russia return to full and verifiable compliance”.

Meanwhile, France conducted a rare simulation of a nuclear deterrent mission, its armed forces ministry said yesterday. The 11-hour mission comes as Paris looks to ensure its long-term nuclear dissuasion programme.

Paris is also concerned over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.