This was the missile that made the United States withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019. However, the beginning of it all dates back to the Cold War and involves North American Tomahawks
After the super-torpedo and the 9M730 nuclear-powered missile, the 9M729 cruise missile – also referred to by NATO as the SSC-8 – is the latest Russian weapon to gain prominence in the Western press.
In an exclusive published this Friday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, denounced that Russia has already hit Ukraine with 23 9M729 missiles since August. At this point you must be wondering why this intermediate-range missile without nuclear propulsion is relevant after the Poseidon and Burevestnik tests? The explanation is, above all, that this is the missile that caused Trump, still in his first term as president of the USA, to order the withdrawal of the INF – Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, in Portuguese).
“Andrii Sybiha’s comments are the first confirmation that Russia used the 9M729 missile in combat – in Ukraine or anywhere else”, highlights Reuters, which also reports that an anonymous source also said that these missiles have already attacked Ukrainian soil 23 times, and in 2022 Ukraine had only identified two attacks with this type of missile.
Major General Agostinho Costa explains that, in a simplistic way, this missile is an “adaptation of a naval missile to a land missile”. The experienced military officer says that what Moscow is doing is “taking a Kalibr cruise missile that is launched from naval platforms on ships and placing them on land platforms.” “Ukraine has the same capacity to destroy the 9M729 as it does to destroy other cruise missiles, but it is much easier and safer for the Russians to launch a missile from its territory than from the Black Sea, making the launch point more survivable”, he highlights.
“This system is very recent and it is normal that it was tested in Ukraine. It doesn’t surprise me at all, because Ukraine is a military experimentation laboratory”, says Major General Agostinho Costa.
Presentation of the 9M729 missile in Kubinka, Moscow, on January 23, 2019. (Source: AP)
What is the 9M729 anyway?
The 9M729 is a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of up to 2,500 km, specifies the Missile Threat website, produced by . It is between six and eight meters long, 514 millimeters in diameter, carries a single 450 kg warhead (which can be conventional or nuclear) and is produced by the Russian company NPO Novator. NATO began by calling it the SSC-X-8, but dropped the “X” as soon as it stopped being an experimental weapon and became operational.
If you still have doubts about what you can or cannot carry, Major General Agostinho Costa simplifies: “Right now, anything that flies above 155 millimeters in caliber, launched from an artillery tube or a missile, can carry a nuclear warhead. This is indisputable.”
Russia began developing this missile in the 2000s and began flight tests in 2008. The still prototype was tested for the first time in July 2014 and, subsequently, on September 2, 2015. On both occasions, both Washington and Moscow recognized that the missile did not fly beyond 500 kilometers as stipulated by the still in force INF.
This missile is not a superb novelty, but rather, in highly summarized terms, a modification of a Russian Navy 3M-54 Kalibr missile. The adaptation means that this missile can be launched from the ground and not from the sea, and this is a detail that could raise concerns for both Ukraine and Europe.
Regarding this missile, there is also a timeline on how NATO progressively reacted to its appearance:
- January 2014: USA informs NATO allies about a Russian missile that violated INF rules with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.
- November 2016: US requests the formation of a special verification commission to deal with Russia’s alleged violation of the INF Treaty. Moscow argues that SSC-8 did not violate the principles of the INF Treaty, and the commission does not move forward.
- November 2017: US responds to SSC-8 with development of its own intermediate-range land-based missile.
- October 2018: Trump announces that the US is considering abandoning the INF due to Russian violations.
- January 2019: Russia publicly displays the SSC-8 missile for the first time.
- 2022: Ukraine denounces two SSC-8 launches
- October 2025: Reuters reports 23 SSC-8 launches in about three months in Ukraine
The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to comment on the matter.
Agostinho Costa recalls that, given Russian technological advances, the USA also began to develop the Typhon system (video below), “which is nothing more than placing BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles on a land platform”. The major general recalls, in fact, that the Tomahawk, when they were designed, were to be launched from land-based platforms and that in a certain way they are linked to the creation of the INF, because Russia ended up responding with a similar creation – the SS-20 missiles – and, in the face of all this, “there was European pressure against the danger of a tactical nuclear war in Europe”.
🇺🇸🇯🇵 BREAKING:
U.S. Army’s Typhon missile system lands in Japan for the first time. Able to launch Tomahawk & SM-6 missiles 1,000 miles, it complicates China & Russia’s military plans.
~ Reuters
— Defence Index (@Defence_Index)
On October 5, missile 9M729 traveled 1,200 km before hitting Ukraine
Reuters’ anonymous source also guarantees that a 9M729, fired on October 5, traveled 1,200 kilometers, violating INF rules that stipulated a maximum range limit of 500 kilometers.
The use of the 9M729 missile expands the Russian arsenal of medium and long-range weapons to attack Ukraine. Furthermore, it fits into Moscow’s pattern of sending “messages” to Europe while Trump tries to reach a peace agreement.
“Putin is trying to increase pressure as part of negotiations with Ukraine”, says William Alberque, senior research associate at the think tank Pacific Forum, to Reuters, highlighting, once again, that the 9M729 missile was, from the beginning, designed with just one purpose: to hit targets in Europe.
Agostinho Costa agrees, because “a missile, being launched from the sea, has to travel much greater distances.” “The INF was intended to take pressure off Europe and on the European front, it was a Cold War agreement”, explains the major general. Now, what Putin is doing is precisely the opposite and trying to increase pressure on the European Union.
The 9M729 missile is interceptable, but it is very easy and safe for the Russians to launch such a missile from their territory. (Source: AP)
Last week, Russia tested the Poseidon and on Wednesday announced a launch of the Poseidon.
“If it is proven that Russia is using intermediate-range missiles, which could easily be nuclear, in Ukraine, then this is a security issue for Europe, not just Ukraine,” John Foreman, former British attaché in Moscow and Kiev, told Reuters.
Reuters also adds that it analyzed images of the debris from the Russian attack on October 5, in which a residential building was hit and four people died in the Ukrainian village of Lapaiivka, more than 600 kilometers from Russian territory. Records show that two missile fragments, including a tube containing cables, were marked with the designation 9M729.
“This gives them slightly different attack trajectories, which is difficult for air defenses, and increases the number of missiles available to the Russians,” says Lewis, a global security researcher at Middlebury College and a member of the team that analyzed the images.
Now, what is the difference between a missile being launched from the sea or the ground? The INF treaty did not prohibit missiles with ranges exceeding 500 kilometers, but which were launched from the sea. The idea behind the agreement is that ground-launched missiles have launchers that are mobile and relatively easy to conceal, and therefore pose a greater threat.
Douglas Barrie, senior researcher in military aerospace matters at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, also highlights that Russia, by using the 9M729 to carry out attacks launched from the ground, can do so from safer locations inside the country.
On a theoretical level, Russia only needed to test this weapon in a real battlefield environment in Ukraine… we wrote “missing” because 23 launches already imply a military purpose, as Douglas Barrie says.
