America Gets Stronger with This New Weapon

America’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty will strengthen it in the face of Russia’s circumventing the treaty in the first place. The Free Beacon reports:

The Pentagon has the capability to build a new intermediate-range ground-launched cruise missile within months after the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from a bilateral arms control treaty with Russia thanks to a little-known provision tucked into the 2017 defense authorization bill.

The measure, called the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty Preservation Act, ordered the Defense Department to develop a road-mobile ground-launched cruise missile system with a range that would violate the terms of the INF agreement.

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The provision cites several State Department reports dating back to 2014 that determined Russia violated the treaty, which bars Washington and Moscow from possessing short- and medium-range nuclear missiles.

“It is not in the national security interests of the United States to be unilaterally legally prohibited from developing dual-capable ground-launched cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, while Russia makes advances in developing and fielding this class of weapon systems, and such unilateral limitation cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely,” the measure states.

President Trump has disavowed treaties that only apply to America and give its enemies an advantage, and this fits the mold.