With the test launch of a missile that flew more than 500 kilometers, the United States boldly entered a future that past leaders had tried to avoid.
The announcement came in a short Pentagon press release sent to the media yesterday after noon: "On August 18 at 14:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time, the Department of Defense conducted a test of a conventionally configured cruise missile in San Nicolas Island, California. The test was successful. The missile was fired from its ground-based mobile launcher and accurately hit the target after more than 500 kilometers of flight. The data collected and lessons learned from this test will be useful for the development of future medium-range capabilities ".
The missile was a "variant of the Tomahawk Land Attack cruise missile," Lieutenant Colonel Robert Carver, a Department of Defense spokesperson, told Military.com. It was launched by the United States Navy and the Department of Defense's Office of Strategic Capabilities.
The military has therefore reached the 500km mark and is developing a next generation artillery weapon called the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM). The PrSM is a long-range replacement for missiles currently launched by the Army's M270A1 multi-launch missile system, or MLRS, and the M142 or HIMARS high-mobility missile system.
So far, the PrSM has an official range of 499 kilometers. This is because missiles with longer distances - between 500 and 5.500 kilometers - were considered dangerous and destabilizing in the 80s. The United States and Russia signed, in fact, the Inf Treaty, on intermediate-range nuclear forces, which is no longer valid today.