The operation had been announced in advance, justified and parameterized with care. Not a luxury given the current tensions with China and Russia, even for routine exercise. The unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was launched September 7 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California at 10:13 a.m. and traveled some 6,760 km over the Pacific before crashing into the sea near the atoll. of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, the US Air Force said in a statement.
“This is routine testing and periodic operations intended to demonstrate that the United States nuclear deterrent system is safe, secure, reliable and effective,” the statement said. “This type of testing has been done over 300 times and has nothing to do with current world events,” the Air Force added.
Previous test postponed twice
The United States does not usually announce its ICBM missile tests in advance, but the last test of Minuteman III, a missile equipped with a warhead that in wartime can carry a nuclear bomb, had to be postponed until two times because of international tensions.
Originally scheduled for March, it was postponed for the first time because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Washington fearing that Moscow would use this ordinary test to widen the conflict to other countries. It had been postponed a second time in early August after the visit of the speaker of the American House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, an island claimed by Beijing. The test was finally successfully completed on August 16.
It is a coincidence that the two tests were conducted so close together, said General Pat Ryder, spokesman for the Pentagon, on Tuesday during a press briefing. The Minuteman III, in service for 50 years, is the only surface-to-air missile in the United States nuclear arsenal since 2005. It is installed in launch silos spread over three American military bases, in Wyoming, Dakota North, and Montana.