Asingle day-Aug. 2,2019-witnessed the intentional closing of a nearly 32-year arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia, and the inadvertent opening of a now-raging bureaucratic conflict between two other traditionally bitter rivals: the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force. The Army intends to use the future Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon battery to open corridors through an enemy's air defenses for the Air Force's long-range bombers. When the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed in 1987, the pact forced the withdrawal and destruction of Soviet SS-20 and U.S. Army Pershing Ⅱ ballistic missiles from Eastern and Western Europe, respectively. The treaty, which banned all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of 500-5,500 km (310-3,400 mi.), also effectively ceded the land-based, long-range strike mission to the Air Force's bombers and air-launched missiles for three decades.
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