Cruise Missiles vs. UAVs

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/WA/2014/09/25/cruise-missiles-versus-uavs/

Cruise Missiles vs. UAVs
Published in Kommersant (Russia) on 15 September 2014 by Elena Chernenko, Kirill Belyaninov, Ivan Safronov [link to original]
Translated from Russian by Elena McIntyre. Edited by Gillian Palmer.
Posted on September 25, 2014.

Russia and the U.S. exchanged charges of the violation of arrangements in the disarmament field.

Discussions of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF treaty) took place in Moscow for the first time in more than 10 years. The U.S. accuses the Russian Federation of testing the forbidden missiles — Moscow has three counterclaims at once. Concerns were not alleviated during the negotiations. Experts do not expect that Russia will leave the treaty, but they warn: In return, the U.S. can place systems in Europe that will be able to get to the command post of Russian strategic forces within minutes.

At the end of last week, for the first time since 2003, consultations on the implementation of the INF Treaty took place in Moscow. The 1987 treaty between the USSR and the U.S. became the first in history to call for the elimination of an entire class of armament: shorter-range missiles (from 500 to 1,000 km) and intermediate-range missiles (from 1,000 to 5,500 km) are covered under the treaty. The special control committee had been active until 2003; however, it has been stopped by U.S. initiative.

In July of this year, the U.S. accused Russia of violating the agreement for the first time: relevant claims were stated in a letter from Barack Obama to Vladimir Putin and in the State Department report on international adherence to the arms control agreements. The report by the U.S. foreign policy department said that “the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the INF Treaty not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) with a range capability of 500 km to 5,500 km, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles” (the type of “banned” missile was not named in the document). A delegation headed by Undersecretary Rose Gottemoeller arrived in Moscow to discuss this problem.