The U.S. Congress is taking a preliminary tit-for-tat approach to addressing Russia’s breach of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, calling in new legislation for the Defense Department to start work on its own middle-range missile.
There have been reports for years that Russia was in violation of the 1987 treaty signed by the United States and then-Soviet Union. The issue took on greater intensity early this year following the finding that Moscow had deployed a ground-launched cruise missile with a flight range within the prohibited 500 to 5,500 kilometers.
Recent reports indicate the Trump administration is considering withdrawing the United States entirely from the treaty. However, Christopher Ford, National Security Council senior director for weapons of mass destruction and counterproliferation, told Sputnik News this week the White House prefers that Russia returns to compliance with the accord.
In the interim, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have their own proposals.
In its mark of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee called on the secretary of defense to create a “program of record” for a road-mobile ground-launched cruise missile with a flight range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. The Pentagon would also be directed to deliver to Congress’ defense committees within 120 days of the NDAA’s passage a report on the expense, timeline, and workability of updating existing or anticipated missile systems to provide those range capabilities.
The White House would further be required to report to Congress within 15 months of the NDAA’s enactment on whether Russia remains in breach of the treaty. If that is the finding, the United States would consider itself unbound from Article 6 of the treaty, which prohibits parties from producing or flight-testing intermediate- and shorter-range missiles and their launchers.
The House Armed Services Committee approved its version of the National Defense Authorization Act late Wednesday, hours after the Senate Armed Services Committee completed the markup of its NDAA for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.
The Senate panel has not yet released the full version of its bill, but an executive summary says the NDAA would authorize $65 million for research and development of a ground-based intermediate-range missile “in order to begin to close the capability gap opened by the Russian violation of the INF Treaty, without placing the United States in violation of the treaty.”
The treaty does not prohibit research and development of such missiles, SASC spokeswoman Rachel Hoff said. Like the House bill, the Senate NDAA also directs study of whether existing missile systems can be converted to intermediate-range capability, she said.
The full House and Senate will now take up consideration of their respective defense bills, some time after next week’s Independence Day recess. Ultimately, the acts will have to be reconciled.
Individual lawmakers are also offering their own approach to addressing the Russian treaty violation.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry’s (R-Texas) mark of the NDAA says “the United States is legally entitled to suspend the operation of the INF Treaty in whole or in part for so long as Russia continues to be in material breach.”
Thornberry’s mark would allow for extra funding for capabilities laid out in section of the fiscal 2016 NDAA that addressed the INF Treaty situation, which would include defenses against intermediate-range ground-launched cruise missiles and “Countervailing strike capabilities to enhance the forces of the United States or allies of the United States, whether or not such capabilities are in compliance with the INF Treaty.” The HASC chairman also proposed authorization for $50 million in funding for development of active defenses against INF-range missiles.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, last week introduced stand-alone legislation that would employ increased sanctions to persuade Russia to come back into compliance with the INF Treaty.
Smith’s bill would require the president by April 1, 2018, to deliver to congressional defense committees a sanctions strategy for Russian violation of the INF treaty. That should involve heightened use of asset freezes and travel prohibitions, along with bans on financial transactions, government-to-government contracts, and other measures, according to the text of Smith’s bill.
The economic penalties would be suspended only after the president has notified Congress that Russia is once again meeting the terms of the accord.
The INF-focused measures are part of a broader proposal from Smith to increase security and deterrence in Europe against Russian aggression, such as requiring the Pentagon to establish and enact a “comprehensive strategy to counter threats by the Russian Federation.”
Smith’s bill, filed June 22 with 21 Democratic co-sponsors, has been referred to the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees.
