GarryB Wed Feb 20, 2019 1:45 am
I rather suspect a backup use for Kinzhal could be to attack ABM sites... mach 2.5 to within 2,000km of the target and then mach 10 for the final stretch is the fastest way to deal the blow... but of course you need some warning to get you plane into the air first...
But then again they wont just launch one missile, it will be a full scale attack which would be impossible to conceal... there will be plenty of westerners within the system who would rather commit treason that suicide/genocide like snowden etc.
The point is that for the US the missiles covered by the INF treaty are short and medium range and are normally inconsequential in the wider scheme of things, while for Russia a lot of their big powerful missiles are being used up pointed at targets smaller lighter cheaper missiles could otherwise deal with effectively... these smaller missiles are theatre missiles for the US but strategic missiles for Russia vs EU or Japan or Canada or the UK.
I think Putin could easily have ordered the withdrawal of this single missile system if he really wanted to keep the INF treaty, but he realises it limits Russia rather more than it limits the west.
I am sure he would be happy to renegotiate with a new treaty, but the US will want to include China and why would they want to limit a missile type they have as their primary self defence weapon? And I would think Russia will want all of NATO and the EU included in the deal too and I don't think the French would be happy about that... let alone the UK...
The INF treaty didn't ban sea or aircraft launched weapons in those categories so Russia has been preparing defences to defend itself from such things anyway... it has been improving its radar coverage and its SAM performance and completely revolutionising its IADS... the EU will pretty much have to start from scratch... individual countries don't even have their own IADS let alone an inter european one... and even if they were handed an operating integrated system fully ready to go... who would be in charge? France and Germany and other countries will fight forever on that one....