The conviction of the United States to fulfill its conception of the "Prompt Global Strike" to use ordinary high-precision long-distance arms to solve its strategic goals is an obstacle in reducing nuclear weapons arsenals, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Non-proliferation, Disarmament, and Arms Control said Monday.

The US Prompt Global Strike system allows Washington to carry out high-precision non-nuclear attacks using hypersonic weapons from US territory at targets throughout the world within about an hour after launch.

In late 2014, a hypersonic weapon the United States was testing exploded several seconds after being launched.

"It is the policy of the United States that is the most serious obstacle in the further reduction in nuclear arms. This is because of their persistent implementation of their line objectively rocking global strategic stability through the unilateral creation of a global system of anti-missile defense that gradually complements the conception of a Prompt Global Strike, which hampers the beginning of negotiations on the prohibition of placing weapons in space and lack of any type of progress in ratifying the LTBT [Limited Test Ban Treaty]," Mikhail Ulyanov said at a non-proliferation conference in New York.

Moscow warned the United States that it could levy a nuclear response if threatened by US conventional forces, such as the Prompt Global Strike program.

In September 2014, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russia was likely to develop its own prompt global strike capability, but would adhere to a defensive doctrine in the development of strategic weaponry.

Source: Sputnik News