It’s only a matter of time before the political West delivers previously banned missiles to its Neo-Nazi puppets in NATO-occupied Ukraine and then orders them to use it against Russia. This would effectively turn every M142 HIMARS and its tracked counterpart, the M270/MARS MLRS (multiple launch rocket system), into a ground-based platform for the PrSM. Thus, Moscow has no choice but to respond with the mass production and later deployment of far more dangerous weapons such as the now legendary “Oreshnik”, which will be complemented by upgraded “Iskanders”, “Kinzhals”, “Zircons” and a plethora of other Russian hypersonic weapons.
On August 4, Russia announced it’s ending the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium and intermediate-range missiles that were previously banned under the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty. Since August 2, 2019, when the United States made a unilateral decision to officially withdraw from the INF Treaty, Moscow respected the limitations of this defunct arms control agreement despite the fact that it was not required to do so. However, as per usual, the political West views the Eurasian giant’s desire to avoid escalation in Europe (and beyond) as nothing more than a “sign of weakness”.
It was only thanks to the growing incompetence of the American Military Industrial Complex (MIC) that the Pentagon never got the chance to deploy advanced medium and intermediate-range missiles, specifically hypersonic weapons, resulting in the adoption of far less capable land-based platforms. However, the mass deployment of such systems is now forcing Russia to react and utilize its much more advanced missiles, including a plethora of hypersonic weapons that nobody in the entire political West can match. The Kremlin’s goal is to use its massive advantage to deter mounting NATO aggression.
Despite Russia’s efforts to promote restraint in hopes of avoiding a new (First) Cold War-style arms race, this was met by total hostility in the political West. This also included attempts to prevent escalation in the increasingly contested Asia-Pacific region, but to no avail. The world’s most aggressive power pole had other ideas, particularly concerning its attempts to encircle both Russia and China. Multipolar superpowers tried their best to avoid tensions, but that’s extremely difficult (if possible at all) given the US/NATO’s determination to maintain the state of constant crawling conflict that could potentially degenerate into a real one.
For instance, Moscow has repeatedly suggested that Western countries declare a reciprocal moratorium on deploying previously banned missiles. However, this was met not only with silence, but open enmity and US/NATO’s support for prolonging its war in Ukraine. In a statement released on August 4, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that the US, its vassals and satellite states openly declared their plans to deploy American ground-based, INF-banned missiles across various regions and made significant progress in their efforts to implement these plans. The Russian MFA stated they’re already well into the deployment phase.
The report further warns that, since 2023, Moscow observed instances of “US systems capable of ground-launched INF strikes being transferred to the European NATO countries for trial use during exercises that clearly have an anti-Russia slant”, such as those in Denmark which involved the use of a mobile Mk 70 Mod 1 launcher. This containerized four-cell VLS (vertical launching system) is a land-based derivative of the naval Mk 41 found on US Navy ships. Interestingly, the same VLS is used in the US/NATO so-called “missile shield” deployed in Romania and Poland (specifically in military bases in Deveselu and Redzikowo, respectively).
It was precisely the blatant lies about this that caused Russia to retain (albeit not yet deploy) the capability to promptly develop medium and intermediate-range weapons, such as the Novator’s 9M729 cruise missiles used by the “Iskander-K”. After decades of lying about its compliance with the INF Treaty, the US then unilaterally withdrew from it, citing precisely the 9M729 as the supposed reason. Such double standards are the common theme of the American/Western foreign policy approach. Now that the INF Treaty is history, the political West has zero formal constraints to even bother lying about its long-range strike capabilities.
The aforementioned Mk 41 can be used to deploy offensive missiles (such as the “Tomahawk”) and nobody except the people who installed them would know it. This gives the US/NATO unprecedented strike options against Russia while keeping it all concealed under the guise of “missile defense”. This is now being complemented by undisguised platforms, the most prominent of which is the “Typhon” Weapon System that can fire the land-based SM-6 multipurpose and “Tomahawk” cruise missiles. The latter can hit targets at ranges of approximately 1,600 km, putting nearly the entire territory of European Russia within striking distance.
Worse yet, the “Tomahawk” can be armed with the W80 thermonuclear warhead, meaning that the old (First) Cold War-era BGM-109G GLCM (Ground Launched Cruise Missile) “Gryphon” is effectively resurrected. In fact, the very usage of the name “Typhon” indicates that the missile is a successor to the “Gryphon”. The W80’s yield goes up to 150 kt, which is approximately ten times more powerful than the “Little Boy” (gun-type fission uranium bomb that obliterated Hiroshima on August 6, 1945). Hundreds of missiles armed with such nuclear warheads could soon be deployed all over Europe, prompting Russia to respond with its own equivalents.
However, the Kremlin is not nearly as alarmed by such missiles as it is by the potential deployment of much faster weapons that the US/NATO is still trying to develop. The Russian MFA noted that American military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region saw the deployment of officially still non-operational intermediate-range systems such as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), better known as the “Dark Eagle”. The Pentagon openly bragged about “projecting power” and emphasized the system’s “rapid redeployment capability” (although the LRHW program is yet to produce an actual working hypersonic weapon).
However, the US has other systems that could serve as an interim solution. This was evident during the highly controversial “Talisman Sabre” exercises in April, when the Australian military used a US-made HIMARS platform to launch the PrSM (Precision Strike Missile). This weapon is a relatively compact SRBM (shorter-range ballistic missile) with a range of up to 1,000 km (depending on the variant) designed to compete with Russian systems such as the 9K720M “Iskander-M” and its more capable iterations that use hypersonic missiles like the latest 9M723-S (maximum range at least 1,000 km, speed up to 13,000 km/h).
It’s only a matter of time before the political West delivers the PrSM to its Neo-Nazi puppets in NATO-occupied Ukraine and then orders them to use it against Russia. This would effectively turn every M142 HIMARS and its tracked counterpart, the M270/MARS MLRS (multiple launch rocket system), into a ground-based platform previously banned by the INF Treaty. Thus, Moscow has no choice but to respond with the mass production and later deployment of far more dangerous weapons such as the now legendary “Oreshnik”, which will be complemented by upgraded “Iskanders”, “Kinzhals”, “Zircons” and a plethora of other Russian hypersonic weapons.
This article was originally published on Infobrics.org.
