The U.S. military fired an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM) on Wednesday as part of a previously planned routine test of a missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
As stated in the announcement, the rocket was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and flew over 6.7 thousand meters. km, and then landed at the training ground. Ronald Reagan on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The missile was launched remotely from a U.S. Navy E-6B aircraft using the ALCS backup command system.
The military emphasized in a statement that Wednesday's test – GT 254 – is “part of a series of routine and periodic activities critical to assessing the capabilities of the Minuteman III.”
Minuteman III is the basic ICBM class missile in the American nuclear arsenal, which has been in service since the 1970s and is ultimately to be replaced by the LGM-35 Sentinel.
Tests of these missiles are carried out routinely – the last one took place in May – and are not directly related to President Donald Trump's announcement to resume nuclear tests. Trump claimed that Russia and China were secretly conducting such underground tests and the US would do the same. However, Energy Minister Chris Wright, who is responsible for nuclear weapons, announced that the plans do not include nuclear weapons tests involving nuclear explosions, but “subcritical” tests that the US has already carried out before.
Putin: Russia will take retaliatory measures
Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced during a meeting with the management staff of ministries and services responsible for the security sector that Russia will have to take appropriate retaliatory measures in response to nuclear tests of other countries.
– If other countries carry out such tests, Russia will have to take appropriate retaliatory measures – Putin said on Wednesday, quoted by Reuters. He noted that Moscow has always supported the ban on similar tests, as long as it is not violated by other countries that are parties to the nuclear test ban agreement.
The Russian leader ordered the leadership of the security forces to prepare proposals for nuclear tests in response to US President Donald Trump's announcement of American tests.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that the United States is expanding its offensive nuclear forces. The US is to work on a new intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 13,000. km and on the strategic submarine project Columbia. – Therefore, preparations for large-scale nuclear tests should begin immediately, Belousov said.
The head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, said that US officials refused to talk directly about Donald Trump's statement.
Trump announced on October 30, just before his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, that he had ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons tests, citing tests by other countries. (PAP)
A step in the wrong direction?
Restarting nuclear warhead tests by the US would end a thirty-year-old memorandum of understanding among the main nuclear powers and would be a step backwards, said the British daily Financial Times.
Last week's announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump to resume nuclear weapons tests “on an equal basis” with Russia and China was intended to surprise U.S. officials as well as Beijing and Moscow, the newspaper revealed on Tuesday.
In the opinion of the editorial team, this statement “raised fears that the world is entering a new nuclear arms race that may result in the destruction of much of the arms control architecture of the Cold War.”
As explained by the FT, “Trump may have wanted to signal that the United States would intensify tests of (nuclear weapons) delivery systems, not the warheads themselves,” although – as it was pointed out – “in a weekend television interview, however, (the US president) seemed to confirm that he meant tests using nuclear weapons.” “Regardless of the truth, a return to American warhead tests would be a step backwards,” the daily said.
The newspaper assumed that if Washington took such actions, it would give Russia and China a pretext to react in a similar way, and other countries with nuclear arsenals to modernize their weapons. This would “demolish one of the few remaining pillars of U.S.-Russian arms control.”
“FT” reminded that the New START treaty, limiting the number of strategic warheads of the US and Russia, expires in February 2026. “Putin proposed a conditional extension (of this agreement) for a year, and Washington expressed support (for this idea), but did not formally respond. The erosion of arms control, the rush to new systems and loose talks about tests are all the more disturbing because (already) Russia's war with Ukraine meant a return to nuclear blackmail,” the editorial noted. The daily quoted information from American intelligence, which estimated it at 50%. the likelihood of Moscow using nuclear weapons if Russian forces lose positions taken in Ukraine at the end of 2022.
The newspaper also drew attention to China, whose nuclear arsenal may increase from about 600 to over 1,000. warheads by 2030. As she emphasized, American officials express concerns that the number of such missiles in Russia and China may soon exceed the number of such missiles possessed by the United States.
The FT suggested that “regardless of Trump's legitimate frustrations with Putin over (US) efforts to end the war in Ukraine, and regardless of China's current position, the US president should engage with Moscow about extending the New START agreement as a step toward restoring arms control.”
From London Marta Zabłocka (PAP)
From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)
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