The United States tested a long-range nuclear-capable missile, a show of strength against China and Russia.
THEAir Force Global Strike Command launched the ICBM two days ago Minuteman III (ICBM) disarmed from the Californian base of the Vandenberg Space Force. He was headed for the Pacific.
"Our nuclear triad (nuclear capacity from land, sea and air ed) it is the cornerstone of the national security of our country and of our allies around the world“, Said the colonel Chris Cruisecommander of the 576th Flight Test Squadron who then added: "This test launch demonstrates how our nation's ICBM fleet is a highly reliable weapon system. The launch demonstrated the skills and experience of our personnel in charge of the maintenance of strategic weapons and of our missile crews, who maintain a very high level of vigilance to defend their homeland ”.
The test was delayed twice: last March and this month. The reason is to be found in the attempt to calm diplomatic tensions with Beijing and Moscow. China resents US interference with the Taiwan island issue, while the war in Ukraine has brought US-Russia relations to their lowest point since the Cold War.
The Chinese military organized large-scale exercises in the Taiwan Strait this month in response to a visit to the island two weeks ago by Nancy Pelosi, chairman of the House of Representatives. Pelosi was the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years. China considers Taiwan, which is a democracy, part of its territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.
THEaeronautics American (USAF), in a statement, denied that yesterday's test was a muscle demonstration: "This trial launch is part of routine and periodic activities aimed at demonstrating that the US nuclear deterrent is safe, reliable and effective. These tests have been carried out more than 300 times before and this test is not the result of current world events ”.
The missile test, however, has not gone unnoticed in Russia and especially in China, which has been aggressively trying to strengthen its position in the Pacific in recent years. The Chinese military, in response, said it had conducted other exercises near Taiwan last Monday when a group of US congressmen visited Taiwan, meeting with President Tsai.
The missile tested yesterday by the US carried a test re-entry vehicle, which in a strategic conflict could be armed with a nuclear warhead. The re-entry vehicle traveled approximately 4.200 miles (6700 km) to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. At the beginning of the year, the United States had about 3.700 nuclear warheads. China maintains a much smaller number of nuclear warheads, thought to be around 200, although a US Department of Defense report last year predicted that the number could quadruple by 2030.