The U.S. Depart­ment of Defense is aim­ing to start pro­duc­ing a ground-launched sys­tems for hold­ing and fir­ing cruise mis­siles on mobile plat­forms, such as wheeled trucks and containers.

Dur­ing the vis­it of U.S. Spe­cial Pres­i­den­tial Envoy for Arms Con­trol Mar­shall S. Billingslea with the Strate­gic Capa­bil­i­ties Office to Lock­heed Mar­tin facil­i­ty was dis­played new con­ven­tion­al­ly con­fig­ured ground-launched cruise mis­sile system.

“This will help ensure the U.S. and our allies in Europe & Asia are able to defend against aggres­sion,” said Billingslea.

Last year, the U.S. Marine Corps says it needs Tom­a­hawk ground-launched mis­siles that can seek out and elim­i­nate ene­my ships sail­ing in con­test­ed water­ways and for strikes against tar­gets on land.

“That means the Marine Corps assumes a role which we have not had in the past 20 years, which is how do we con­tribute to sea con­trol and sea denial,” Marine Corps Com­man­dant Gen. David Berg­er told the Sen­ate Armed Ser­vices Committee.

The U.S. moves are aimed at coun­ter­ing Chi­na and Russia’s over­whelm­ing advan­tage in land-based cruise and bal­lis­tic mis­siles. The Pen­ta­gon also intends to dial back China’s lead in what strate­gists refer to as the “range war.”

In August 2019, Pen­ta­gon has con­duct­ed the first flight test of a  long-range, ground-launched cruise missile.

“On Aug. 18, at 2:30 p.m. Pacif­ic Day­light Time, the Defense Depart­ment con­duct­ed a flight test of a con­ven­tion­al­ly con­fig­ured ground-launched cruise mis­sile at San Nico­las Island, Calif,” said in the announcement.

The test mis­sile exit­ed its ground mobile launch­er and accu­rate­ly impact­ed its tar­get after more than 500 kilo­me­ters of flight.