Russia to resume production of shorter- and medium-range missiles

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has said that Russia should resume the production of medium- and short-range missiles and find a place to deploy them. This is reported by the Russian media.

He explained his initiative by the fact that the US is allegedly producing and deploying short- and medium-range missiles in Europe, which "requires a reaction."

Russia needs to start producing these strike systems and then decide where to deploy them," Putin said.

The treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles was signed by General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan in December 1987. The treaty was the first document in history to eliminate an entire class of weapons. Its participants pledged to destroy all medium-range and short-range land-based ballistic and cruise missiles. In addition, the parties agreed not to produce or test new RSMDs.

Specifically, the elimination was to include:

medium-range missiles (1000-5500 kilometres)

• From the Soviet side: RSD-10 "Pioneer", "R-12", R-14", as well as ground-launched cruise missiles RK-55;
• On the American side: Pershing-2 and BGM-109G.

short-range missiles (500-1000 km)

• On the Soviet side: OTR-22 Temp-S and OTR-23 Oka;
• On the American side: Pershing-1A.

By June 1991, the USSR leadership had eliminated 1,846 missile systems, while the US had eliminated 846 systems.

However, in 2017, US President Donald Trump allocated $25 million to develop a new GM158B-type cruise missile. In 2019, Trump announced the start of the procedure to withdraw from the treaty.

Russia suspended its participation in the Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missile Treaty (INF) in 2019.

The main characteristic of short- and medium-range missiles is that they reach their target in a very short time. While intercontinental missiles take dozens of minutes to deliver a warhead into enemy territory, short- and medium-range missiles take minutes.