Breaking: Pentagon Conducts First Test Of Non-Nuclear Capable Ballistic Missile Post-INF Treaty

[F-22Raptor]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1205196684038430720

Details are still limited, but the U.S. military has confirmed that it launched a ground-launched ballistic missile, believed to be in the intermediate-range class, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California this morning. This is the first U.S. test of this type of weapon since the collapse earlier this year of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, between the United States and Russia, which had prohibited both countries from developing and fielding missiles in this category.

CNN's Ryan Brown was among the first to get the official acknowledgment of the test. In March 2019, the Pentagon announced that it planned to conduct a test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, or IRBM, defined as a ballistic missile with a maximum range of between 1,864 and 3,418 miles, in November. It's unclear why the test was delayed slightly. In August 2019, the U.S. military conducted a test of BGM-109 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile from a trailer-mounted derivative of the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System, another system the INF had previously banned. Under the provisions of the INF, the U.S. Army had disposed of dedicated ground-launched BGM-109G Gryphon cruise missiles and Pershing II medium-range ballistic missiles in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"The Department of Defense conducted a flight test of a conventionally-configured ground-launched ballistic missile at approximately 8:30am. Pacific Time, today, Dec. 12, 2019, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA," the Pentagon said in a statement, according to a Tweet from CNN's Brown. "We are currently evaluating the results of the test."

There were indications that the test was imminent already. On Dec. 11, 2019, Twitter user @AircraftSpots, a friend of The War Zone, had posted a Tweet about a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) cordoning off an area off the coast of California near Vandenberg ahead of what appeared to be some kind of test. Vandenberg is also routinely used to conduct regular test launches of the U.S. Air Force's LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

There are no details yet about the missile's actual design or capabilities. However, in 2017, the U.S. military reportedly began studying what it would take to develop weapons that the INF then prohibited. This was prompted by Russia's development and fielding of a treaty-breaking ground-launched cruise missile, something the Kremlin continues to deny it did, which ultimately led to the Cold War-era deal falling apart.

The U.S. military could have explored multiple tracks and put any number of them into action after the abandonment of the INF. Developing a missile using only one or two stages from the three-stage Minuteman III design is one option. The U.S. Army has already acquired similar designs in the past for use as surrogates for ballistic missiles during ballistic missile defense system tests. The Hera, for example, uses the second and third stages from older Minuteman II ICBMs.

Another possibility would have been a conventionally armed design based on the booster that the U.S. Army developed as part of its Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) program are options that the United States could have leveraged quickly to enable this test.

The Army has already been leveraging the work done under the AHW effort to support the development of a new ground-based hypersonic missile as part of a tri-service effort with the U.S. Air Force and Navy. There is also a possibility that this test was actually of a booster with a new hypersonic boost-glide vehicle on top, but the Army has said it doesn't expect to conduct the first test launch of its future ground-launched hypersonic weapon until 2022.

In 2018, the service had also revealed plans for a "Strategic Fires Missiles" with a then-INF-breaking range, which appeared to be a new ground-launched ballistic missile. This program may also have informed work on the new IRBM.

The test is almost certain to draw the ire of Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has already demanded a "symmetric response" to the August ground-launched Tomahawk test, as well as criticism from China. The U.S. government has said in the past it could use new post-INF missiles to challenge the Chinese geopolitically in the Pacific Region, especially in disputed areas, such as the South China Sea. It may also prompt responses from smaller potential opponents, such as North Korea, which has been threatening to a new "strategic" missile test before the end of the year and has decried international criticism, especially from the United States, of its own ballistic missile programs.

We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.

UPDATE: 1:25pm EST—

Breaking Defense is reporting that what the U.S. military is now calling a "prototype conventionally-configured ground-launched ballistic missile" flew more than 310 miles, beyond the limits the INF had previously imposed.

A close-up view of the missile on the launch platform right before the test strongly suggests that the prototype has a Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle (MARV) warhead. This had also been a feature on the Pershing II.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ic-missile-following-inf-arms-treaty-collapse

 

[F-22Raptor]

A suite of ground launched Tomahawks, intermediate range ballistic missiles, dual capable Precision Strike Missiles, and ground launched hypersonic missiles dispersed across the Pacific, will be a gamechanger for US forces in the Pacific.

 

[Avicenna]

How can one tell whats on the warhead of one those ballistic missiles?

As in radar tracking incoming.....

Nuclear or conventional.....

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

A suite of ground launched Tomahawks, intermediate range ballistic missiles, dual capable Precision Strike Missiles, and ground launched hypersonic missiles dispersed across the Pacific, will be a gamechanger for US forces in the Pacific.

Unfortunately for you, your pitiful attempt to copy China's ballistic missile doctrine is doomed to failure. You simply don't have access to the geography needed to make these missiles work. In any shooting war, China will turn the tiny archipelagos the US is present on into ash trays. The missiles on them will be immolated along with everything else. China, on the other hand, has a continent to operate from.

 

[F-22Raptor]

Unfortunately for you, your pitiful attempt to copy China's ballistic missile doctrine is doomed to failure. You simply don't have access to the geography needed to make these missiles work. In any shooting war, China will turn the tiny archipelagos the US is present on into ash trays. The missiles on them will be immolated along with everything else. China, on the other hand, has a continent to operate from.

There are thousands of islands across the Pacific in which the US can disperse its forces. And in any crisis it can rapidly deploy to Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam etc. China doesn't have the ISR capacity to surveil, target, complete the kill chain, and conduct post damage assessment across the entire Pacific. The US will stress Chinese ISR to the max, find holes in the network, then disintegrate it. It also doesn't have the missile capacity. China maybe has 400-500 medium to intermediate range ballistic missiles. Nowhere near enough against the US. And the days of China building ground launched ballistic missiles uncontested are now over.

Meanwhile, the US will take Chinas anti access area denial strategy and flip it on its head. With the introductions of these new ground launched weapons, and new aircraft such as the B-21 bomber, the US will thereby make the first island chain a death zone for the Chinese military and commercial shipping.

This will give the US a decisive advantage. Now we just need time.

 

[Sineva]

How can one tell whats on the warhead of one those ballistic missiles?

As in radar tracking incoming.....

Nuclear or conventional.....

You cant.
This was one of the big problems with the original concept for Prompt Global Strike ie a conventionally armed submarine launched trident derivative.

 

[F-22Raptor]

Pentagon Busts Though The INF Wall, Puts Putin and Xi On Notice

WASHINGTON: In a clear signal to Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang this morning, the Pentagon again showed it plans to leave the INF treaty behind by launching a prototype ballistic missile that blew past the old pact’s range limits.

In the second test of its kind since the US pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty in August, the prototype ballistic missile flew more than 500km before crashing into the ocean, as planned, while “data collected and lessons learned from this test will inform the Department of Defense’s development of future intermediate-range capabilities,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Carver said in a statement.

In a previous test conducted just two weeks after withdrawing from the treaty, the US launched a Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missile from an island off the California coast, marking the first time a missile breached the 500-5,000km range barred by the treaty, putting competitors on notice that the US was ready to push ahead quickly.

Both tests were run by the Air Force in partnership with the Strategic Capabilities Office.

In it’s 2020 budget request, the Pentagon asked for $96 million to continue research and begin testing ground-launched missiles that break the INF’s previously restrictive bounds. But any plans to buy one of these missiles in the near-term at least appears to be on hold until Capitol Hill understands the Pentagon’s plans a little better.

Congress blocked spending any fiscal 2020 funds on buying or fielding intermediate-range ballistic or cruise missiles. The prohibition is included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act agreed to Monday, just hours before the Army tested one of the competitors in it’s competition for a next-generation long-range missile. That does not bar prototypes or other research ands development work. The Pentagon can keep working on them for the next year, but must submit a report to Congress with an Analysis of Alternatives for a future INF-busting missile.

Lawmakers also want more information on potential basing options in Europe and a rundown of what conversations the Pentagon has had with allies about plans for basing and deployment locations in the future.

Asked about possible deployments of the new missiles during a visit by the Czech defense minister to the Pentagon today, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, “once we develop intermediate-range missiles and if my commanders require them, then we will work closely and consult closely with our allies in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere with regards to any possible deployments.”

As far as what kind of missile was fired today, Kingston Reif of the Arms Control Association said “it was probably some kind of Frankenstein using existing boosters and components. Of particular interest is whether it used anything from the Missile Defense Agency, especially given Russia’s claims that certain US missile defense programs violated the treaty.”

Reif called the test “more significant” than August’s Tomahawk launch since a ground-launched intermediate-range ballistic missile “could promptly strike deep into Russia, China, and North Korea.” That, of course, is exactly the capability the Pentagon wants.

The NDAA sends the message that Congress wants answers to questions about the rationale and concept of operations for the missiles, not least of which is what allies would be willing to host such missiles. While the chairman of the HASC, Adam Smith, is a proponent of arms control, that is not true of his Senate counterpart, Sen. Jim Inhofe, and the NDAA language is a clear compromise that leaves the military considerable room for maneuver.

At Vandenberg, the 30th Space Wing worked with the SCO on the new missile’s launch preparations and data collection, and has been working on post-INF launches since the US suspended its participation in the treaty in February.

“The National Defense Strategy provides very clear direction to restore our competitive edge in the reemergence of great power competition,” 30th commander Col. Anthony Mastalir said in a statement. “We owe it to our nation to rapidly evolve and develop our capacity to defend.”

https://breakingdefense.com/2019/12...8.1919963932.1576084186-1284686552.1572645892