The US just tested a new missile 16 days after scrapping an arms treaty

From St. Nicolas Island, Calif., the United States fired its latest gift for Vladimir Putin's Russian Army – a new medium-range missile that would have been banned under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in 1987. The accord, also known as the INF Treaty, bans nuclear-capable weapons with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.

The United States left that treaty earlier in August 2019, after blaming Russia for violating the agreement first. The Russians aren't happy about it at all.

Russia's 9M729 missile, the one that broke the 1987 INF Treaty.

The Aug. 18, 2019 missile test saw the projectile deliberately fly beyond the 500-kilometer range that would have seen it banned by the INF Treaty. Newly-minted Secretary of Defense Mark Esper wants missiles like this new one deployed throughout the Asia-Pacific region, but that effort was hampered under the old agreement. Now the U.S. is free to pursue the relevant technology.

"Data collected and lessons learned from this test will inform the Department of Defense's development of future intermediate-range capabilities," the Defense Department said.

Meanwhile, the Russians were openly upset about the Americans pulling out of the treaty and then having a new weapon within the same month.

"All this elicits regret, the United States has obviously taken the course of escalating military tensions. We will not succumb to provocations," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. "We won't allow ourselves to be pulled into a costly arms race."

Bold words from a government who has, according to the United States government, already violated the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty on several occasions, most notably after it developed and deployed a prohibited missile, known by its apparent Russian designation Novator 9M729, a land-based cruise missile with a range of more than 500 kilometers.

"Russia has violated the agreement; they have been violating it for many years," Trump said after a Oct. 20 campaign rally in Elko, Nevada. "And we're not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we're not allowed to." But it's not just the President who is denouncing the Russian military. The State Department came to the same conclusion.

"The United States has determined that in 2016, the Russian Federation (Russia) continued to be in violation of its obligations under the INF Treaty not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) with a range capability of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles," according to the State Department's April 2017 Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments report.

The new U.S. missile isn't nuclear-equipped (at least, not for this particular test) and resembles the more common Tomahawk missile in looks and the once-banned intermediate-range Tomahawk missile last seen in 1987. But the Russians weren't the only ones upset about the looming new Cold War.

"This measure from the U.S. will trigger a new round of an arms race, leading to an escalation of military confrontation, which will have a serious negative impact on the international and regional security situation," Chinese Foreign Minister Geng Shuang said, adding that the U.S. should ditch its Cold War mentality.