The United States successfully tested a nuclear-capable long-range ballistic missile on Tuesday after twice postponing the launch to avoid stoking tensions over Ukraine and Taiwan, announced the US Air Force.
The United States Air Force Global Strike Command launched the intercontinental ballistic missile "Minuteman III" without cargo over the Pacific from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California (western country) just after local midnight.
This missile carried a test re-entry vehicle, which in a strategic conflict could be armed with a nuclear warhead.
The vehicle traveled about 6,760 kilometers to the Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, in the western Pacific Ocean.
“This test launch is part of routine and periodic activities designed to demonstrate that the United States nuclear deterrent is safe, reliable, and effective,” the Air Force said in a statement.
"We have done more than 300 tests like thisand this test is not the result of current world events"he underlined.
The test was originally scheduled for March but was postponed to avoid heightening tensions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24.
It was postponed a second time in early August as military tensions flared over test launches of multiple ballistic missiles and live-fire exercises by China in reaction to visit to Taiwan of the main Democratic legislator of the US Lower House, Nancy Pelosi.