White House Defends Against Russian Counter-Assertions of INF Violation

A White House official yesterday responded point by point to three Russian assertions that the U.S. has violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, while reiterating Washington’s goal to bring Russia back into compliance with the agreement. The U.S. publicly accused Russia in July of violating INF Treaty by developing a ground-launched cruise missile capable of hitting ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Russian officials denied the allegation, and cited U.S. use of booster rockets as ballistic missile targets, armed drones and the Aegis Ashore missile defense shield as violations of the treaty.

 

Jon Wolfsthal, Senior Director for Arms Control and Nonproliferation at the National Security Council, during a presentation at the Carnegie Nuclear Policy Conference, maintained that the U.S. had not broken the agreement, underscoring that the treaty permits use of rocket boosters as ballistic missile targets, that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are not cruise missiles and that the Aegis is not capable of launching offensive missiles. He called Russia’s assertion about the targets a “chaff” to distract from more serious stated U.S. concerns. “The goal is that [booster] systems not be used for research and development for missiles, but that they be used solely for testing the ballistic missile defense systems, and that’s exactly what the United States does,” Wolfsthal said. “The second issue of armed UAVs, put very simply, a UAV is a UAV. It is not a cruise missile. A cruise missile is a cruise missile, and we do not have ground-launched cruise missiles that are within the ranges of the treaty limits.”