9M729

The Novator 9M729 is a cruise missile designed by NPO Novator in Russia. It was responsible for Mike Pompeo's denunciation of the INF Treaty in August 2019.

History

The missile now known as 9M729 was subject to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in December 1987 and had been tested. Six launchers with 84 missiles were deployed at the Missile/Launcher Storage in Jelgava ( Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic) and had been destroyed by November 1990.

In early 2017, US officials and analyst Jeffrey Lewis asserted that Russia was violating the INF through the deployment of the 9M728 (SSC-X-7) and 9M729 ( SSC-X-8) missiles as part of the Iskander missile system. These are widely reported as variants of the earlier SS-C-4. According to U.S officials, two missile battalions equipped with SSC-8 were deployed as of 14 February 2017 in violation of the INF treaty. Each battalion consists of 4 launchers, each launcher supplied with six potentially nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. One battalion is allegedly located at Kapustin Yar near Volgograd; the other's location is unknown at this time.

The German newspaper '' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' argued in February 2019 that in addition to two known locations where missiles and battalions are stationed – at a launch pad at Kapustin Yar, in southern Russia, and Yekaterinburg – there would be two other places equipped with these missiles: Mozdok in North Ossetia and Shuya near Moscow. Each of the four battalions would have four-axle TELs, each carrying four missiles. This adds to 64 SSC-8 missiles in Russia's possession, which can be armed with conventional or nuclear warheads.

In December 2017 it was revealed that Novator's product the 9M729 cruise missile was believed by the US National Security Council to be in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty.

In October 2018 it was responsible for the US denunciation of the INF Treaty.

Description

It may use the Transporter erector launcher (TEL) of the 9K720 Iskander missile system. Other reports have six missiles carried on the MAZ 543 launcher of the R-17 (SS-1 'Scud B').

The 9M729 is thought to be a land-based variant of the Novator Kalibr cruise missile used by the Russian Navy.

This type of missile has a range of 2,350 kilometers. With a conventional warhead of 500 kilograms, the range is 2,000 kilometers.

References

Bibliography

*{{citation , url=http://www.lanl.gov/history/hbombon/pdf/00416713.pdf , title=A Guide to the Nuclear Arms Control Treaties LA-UR-99-3173 , first=David B. , last=Thomson , publisher=Los Alamos National Laboratory , date=July 1999

Surface-to-surface missiles
Post–Cold War weapons of Russia
NPO Novator products
Nuclear cruise missiles of Russia
Military equipment introduced in the 2010s
Military equipment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine