9M729 - SSC-X-8 is deployed by Russia. National Security Experts alarmed...

Thanks to William for the link!

via Global Security.org

The 9M729 is by some accounts a variant of the 9M728 missiles, and its improved version - an extended-range missile - a new land-launched "Garnet." The 9M729 SSC-X-8 is a long-range ground-based cruise missile system. According to Western reports, the rocket is a land version of the SS-N-30 3M14 missile complex "Caliber-NK" and developed OKB "Innovator" (Ekaterinburg). From the report of the 2014 GosNIIP - "management system for 9M728 / 9M729 missiles and its improved version" has passed state tests.
The missile’s assessed range is between 300 miles and 3,400 miles—the distance covered under the landmark INF treaty that banned an entire class of intermediate-range missiles. The missile is made by the normal aerodynamic scheme with wings folded in the fuselage of the missile in the transport position. The missile is equipped with a starting solid propellant, which fires after the launch. The control system and guidance of the cruise missile is presumably inertial control system (autopilot) with Doppler sensors drift angle correction according to satellite navigation systems GLONASS and GPS. At the final stage it may use active radar homing.
There is speculation that the missile is a surface option CBRC X-101 with a range of over 5,500 km. Creation and testing of such missiles in the ground form is recognized by Western observers in violation of the Treaty on the Reduction of INF, which was signed in 1987 between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Ok.  So this missile has been in development for sometime now.  Why is everyone going batty?  Because they now have two batteries of the things operational!

via New York Times

  Russia has secretly deployed a new cruise missile despite complaints from American officials that it violates a landmark arms control treaty that helped seal the end of the Cold War, administration officials say.
The move presents a major challenge for President Trump, who has vowed to improve relations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and to pursue future arms accords.
The new Russian missile deployment also comes as the Trump administration is struggling to fill key policy positions at the State Department and the Pentagon — and to settle on a permanent replacement for Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser who resigned late Monday. Mr. Flynn stepped down after it was revealed that he had misled the vice president and other officials over conversations with Moscow’s ambassador to Washington.
The ground-launched cruise missile at the center of American concerns is one that the Obama administration said in 2014 had been tested in violation of a 1987 treaty that bans American and Russian intermediate-range missiles based on land.

My take on this?

We're seeing the continuation of a coordinated attack against the Trump admin and an attempt to make any agreement of cooperation with Russia tantamount to treason!

This has been on the table for years.

Now.  Today.  Its highlighted by the Washington Times?  We're seeing information warfare at its best.  This stuff is so well coordinated that it has me spinning.  How far does the Deep State go?  How much do they control?

The Russians don't scare me.  The Deep State does.