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Agence France-Presse

Washington has signed more than US$1 billion in new missile contracts in the three months since it announced plans to withdraw from a key cold war-era arms treaty, campaigners said Thursday.
“The withdrawal from the INF Treaty has fired the starting pistol on a new cold war,” warned Beatrice Fihn, who heads the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
US President Donald Trump announced last October that his country would leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) agreement concluded between the US and the former Soviet Union in 1987.
Washington, which accused Russia of violating the treaty through a new missile system, began the official process of withdrawing from the pact in February.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by saying Moscow would also leave the INF treaty, which is considered the cornerstone of global arms control.

In the three months following the October announcement, the US government “proceeded to arrange no less than US$1 billion in new missile contracts”, according to a report by ICAN and another anti-nuclear campaign group, PAX.
The report detailed over US$1.1 billion in new contracts with six mainly US companies.
US defence contractor Raytheon saw the biggest windfall, tallying 44 new contracts worth some US$537 million.
Lockheed Martin meanwhile scooped up 36 new contracts, worth US$268 million, while Boeing grabbed four new contracts totalling US$245 million, the report found.
Chinese missile force puts new Russian S-400 air defence system to the test
“Congress should investigate the lobbying roles of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon who took the lion’s share of these contracts,” Fihn said in a statement.
The report authors acknowledged that it was unclear if all of the new contracts awarded between October 22, 2018 and January 21, 2019 were for new nuclear weapon production.
“What is clear is that there is a new rush towards building more missiles that benefit a handful of US companies and intend to flood the market with missiles regardless of their range,” they said.

At a global level, the report found that governments are currently contracting at least US$116 billion (€102 billion) to private companies in France, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain and the US for the production, development and stockpiling of nuclear weapons.
At the same time, it stressed that the private sector involvement in the arsenals of China, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Russia remain largely hidden, with little insight into how much is being contracted and which companies are getting the deals.
Many of the outstanding contracts identified in the report were granted around 2015 and are set to expire in 2020, but some of the contracts have far longer time frames.
For example, one contract for a key component necessary to launch US Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles runs until at least 2075, the report showed.
“President Trump is heralding the need for global denuclearisation, but US deeds, and those of nuclear-armed allies do not match those words,” said Susi Snyder, PAX nuclear disarmament programme manager and the lead author of the report.
“We see the US and other states planning for a nuclear-armed century, with contracts to maintain weapons through at least 2075, despite growing domestic and global calls to reverse course,” she lamented.


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Russia

‘The starting pistol on a new cold war’: US signs more than US$1 billion in missile contracts in just three months

A sign marks the Raytheon offices in Woburn, Massachusetts. Photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) are driven past the stand with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other high ranking officials during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of country's founding father Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang April 15, 2017. The missiles themselves were shown for the first time inside a new kind of canister-based launcher on Saturday. The trucks upon which they are mounted are originally designed to move lumber. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia April 29, 2019. Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.

North Korea’s ‘new guided weapon’ designed for ground combat, not a ballistic missile, says South’s military

People watch a photo showing North Korea's ‘missile launch’ on Thursday. Photo: AP

In this Tuesday, April 16, 2019, photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects fighter combat readiness of Unit 1017 of the Air and Anti-aircraft Force of the Korean People's Army, in an unknown location in North Korea. Kim is cautiously turning up the heat after his unsuccessful summit with U.S. President Trump in Hanoi two months ago. Returning to military optics for the first time in five months, Kim paid a surprise visit to the Air Force base and followed that up the next day by supervising the test of what the North’s official media described ominously - but ambiguously, and without any photos or video - as a new type of “tactical guided weapon.” Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abb

India blowing up a satellite with missile was ‘terrible’, Nasa says, as it created 400 pieces of debris that endanger astronauts

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-45 lifts from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh state. Photo: AP

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Purchases follow US President Donald Trump’s announcement in October that the country would leave the INF agreement


Purchases follow US President Donald Trump’s announcement in October that the country would leave the INF agreement.


‘The starting pistol on a new cold war’: US signs more than US$1 billion in missile contracts in just three months

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Purchases follow US President Donald Trump’s announcement in October that the country would leave the INF agreement

Purchases follow US President Donald Trump’s announcement in October that the country would leave the INF agreement