InsideDefense.com:

Russia is arming naval forces in the Pacific region this year with a new advanced cruise missile that will give its submarines and ships the ability to sink other ships and — for the first time — execute long-range strikes against land targets, according to a senior Pentagon official.

Adm. Phil Davidson, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told Congress in written testimony this week that Russia will begin fielding the Kalibr cruise missile across its Pacific fleet this year — a weapon that other Pentagon officials have warned could be used to offset U.S. military power-projection advantages and limit U.S. diplomatic options in a crisis.

“We expect the Russian Pacific Fleet will add its first Kalibr cruise missile-capable ships and submarines to its inventory in 2021, giving it substantially increased anti-ship capabilities and the ability to conduct long-range strikes against land targets for the first time,” Davidson said.

In a January report, the Defense Intelligence Ballistic Missile Analysis Committee assessed the range of the ship- and sub-launched variant of the new Russian cruise missile — the 3M-14 Kalibr — to be at least 2,500 kilometers.

This kind of capability is prompting North American Aerospace Defense Command to think anew about domestic air defense, advancing the concept for a Strategic Homeland Integrated Ecosystems for Layered Defense (SHIELD)…

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