Updated May 2025
- The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF, or The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles) was signed on December 8, 1987, and entered into force on June 1, 1988.
- The treaty required parties to eliminate nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles that are used at distances ranging from 500 to 5,500 kilometers.
- The two countries eliminated intermediate-range nuclear weapons by 1991, destroying a total of 2,692 missiles.
- After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 the treaty was “multilateralized” to include 12 Soviet successor states.
- On August 2, 2019, the United States officially withdrew from the INF treaty. President Trump cited Russia’s noncompliance by developing and fielding a treaty-violating missile system as the reason for leaving.
Why It Mattered
The treaty prevented the production, flight-testing, and deployment of a destabilizing class of weapons and inhibited an arms race of intermediate-range missile systems.
The INF treaty was in part a response to the Soviet Union’s deployment of SS-20 missiles in the mid-1970s. Anxiety about this decision led to NATO’s “dual-track” decision to engage the USSR in arms control negotiations and deploy American intermediate-range weapons in Western Europe to counter Soviet INF missiles. The INF treaty set an important precedent for arms control negotiations by eliminating an entire class of weapons that were deployed by both parties and considered to be key to both nations’ security strategies. The treaty was also the first arms control agreement between the United States and Soviet Union that reduced each country’s nuclear delivery systems.
What the Treaty Did
The treaty listed the specific types of ground-launched missiles and associated equipment that the United States and the USSR were required to destroy. The United States had to dismantle all Pershing II, Pershing IA, and Pershing IB ballistic missiles and BGM-109G cruise missiles, and the USSR had to dismantle its SS-20, SS-4, SS-5, SS-12, and SS-23 ballistic missiles and SSC-X-4 cruise missiles. Equipment associated with these missiles (e.g. training missiles and launchers) also had to be destroyed, but warheads could be reconfigured for use on other systems not controlled by the treaty. And finally, neither party could produce missiles that matched the treaty’s definition of “intermediate-range.”
Verification
In addition to national technical means of verification (NTM) via satellites and remote sensing capabilities, the INF was the first arms control treaty between both countries to incorporate “intrusive” methods of verification, including extensive exchanges of data and inspections. Baseline inspections were performed in 1988 to establish each country’s size and location of intermediate-range nuclear forces. The INF treaty provided for up to 20 short-notice inspections per year at specific sites designated in the treaty agreement for the first three years after the treaty entered into force, 15 such inspections per year for the next five years, and ten such inspections per year for the following five years. These inspections ended in 2001. The INF treaty also created the Special Verification Commission, which operated as a forum through which the two parties could theoretically resolve questions about compliance.
Russian Violation and U.S. Withdrawal from the INF
While the treaty helped eliminate an entire class of destabilizing weapons and reduced both countries’ nuclear delivery systems for 32 years, Russia and the United States eventually accused each other of various violations which ultimately led to the treaty’s end in 2019. The United States formally accused the Russian Federation of testing and deploying a cruise missile, known as the 9M729 or the SSC-8, in violation of the INF treaty. The United States first brought this issue before Congress in 2011, and raised the issue with Russia in 2013 after it became clear that the missile being developed was ground-launched. (The INF did not restrict air- or sea-launched cruise missiles). Despite the American objections, Russia has since deployed three battalions of the missile, with another battalion located at a training site. Russia denies violating the treaty. In 2019, the United States presented classified briefings to NATO allies on the Russian violations that convinced NATO to support the treaty’s conclusion.
