The United States Air Force successfully launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from Vandenberg Space Force Base (SFB), California, on 19 February 2025, as part of routine testing to ensure the readiness, reliability, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
A joint team from U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) and Vandenberg SFB Guardians carried out the launch, which included a telemetered joint test assembly re-entry vehicle.
This follows over 300 similar tests conducted in the past, highlighting what the U.S. call a “commitment to maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent”.
“Today’s Minuteman III test launch is just one of the ways the Department of the Air Force demonstrates the readiness, precision, and professionalism of U.S. nuclear forces,” said Acting Secretary of the Air Force Gary Ashworth. “It also provides confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrence mission.”
Here’s the video.
At 1 am, the United States test-launched an unarmed ‘Minuteman III’ nuclear missile to “demonstrate that the U.S. ICBM fleet is ready, reliable and effective in leveraging dominance”. Here’s the video. pic.twitter.com/lIa3d82kOs
— UK Defence Journal (@UKDefJournal) February 20, 2025
Routine test, not a response to global events
U.S. military officials emphasised that this test was pre-planned and is not a reaction to current global events. Instead, the Minuteman III test program is a key part of the U.S. national defence strategy, ensuring the continued effectiveness of the ICBM force.
Colonel Dorian Hatcher, Deputy Commander of Space Launch Delta 30, noted the importance of these tests for national security:
“Facilitating test launches from the Western Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base is a critical component of our mission and the national defence strategy.”
In their news release, the U.S. Air Force added that the 377th Test and Evaluation Group, based at Vandenberg SFB, oversaw the test launch, gathering crucial performance data to assess the current Minuteman III system while preparing for the transition to its replacement, the Sentinel missile program.
Colonel Dustin Harmon, 377th TEG Commander, explained:
“This test allows our team to analyze and report accuracy and reliability for the current system while validating projected missile system improvements.”
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I bet they fired it before DOGE commanded it’s sale to the Russians.
I agree, it’s starting to feel like the US government and especially the miliatry is running on autopilot, the military is still keyed up for a fight against Russia and or China while the political leadership is rapidly re aligning with the former enemy’s position. I bet many in the military are currently scratching their heads waiting for the inevitable purge to reach them next.
I think the best outcome we can hope for now is just simple US isolationism and demilitarisation. There security guarantees are now worthless and they are more likely to be a threat than a friend to any liberal democratic country.
This may be one of the last land based launches the US conducts as I can very much see Sentinal being the number one cut from the USAF budget coming up.
There’s been a surge of new recruits since Trump came to power.
Perspectives are different there and our lens in to America comes through the nexus of the legacy media which is pretty much a minority voice in the USA now. In fact Trump’s popularity is rocketing because of the hundreds of billions Doge is saving already. $55bn in the first month alone. The staggering levels of woke expenditure made by USAID is sickening… But that’s not reported on here, because it’s not really reported on in the legacy media so, like normally, we Brits only get one side of the story, which is presented in a highly partisan way.
The reason for instance the tariffs are being put in place is to firstly improve balance of trade but more importantly in the long run, drive investment in US industry… and it’s working. They are going to reindustrialise and the level of investment in new industry and tech will dwarf everyone else. $500bn in AI alone.
Nath, you are a complete idiot
No, you are the complete and utter idiot. Nath is completely on target. Most of Europe hasn’t a clue as to what’s going on in the US. Trump’s primary problem is that his brain doesn’t have a regulator for what comes out of his mouth. Americans understand that but are willing to put up with it because they support his policies. America will no longer sit back and absorb finger wagging and constant criticism from Europeans who have refused, for decades, to pull their own weight. Europe brought this on, Trump didn’t. America is in the process of rejuvenating itself. Deal with it.
That’s funny because I remember reading about this Austrian guy who went to another country and got elected by a minority of the people on a platform of national rejuvenation.
Except the trade tariffs don’t work. It was the case last time as it is this. US’s Trade deficit didn’t drop in Trumps first term it grew a staggering 21% the highest since 2008. $1.7 Trillion was lost in stocks and the industry base didn’t grow (in steel) ad actually went from 84 to 80k employment so hardly moved whilst costs rose.
China moved their trade base last time to Vietnam and Malaysia and US companies stull procured through there hence the deficit increasing.
As for the rubbish about drive investment in US Industry that’s completely false. That’s additional cost expenditure that the US business has to build on and they don’t want to. That means higher pricing and building new infrastructure. Perfect example is the import of oil from Canada. The US cannot process heavy oil and the cost put on the private firms is too big. That raises costs from what US business right now see as riding out the storm.
So what is with the threatened annexation of Canada, Greenland Panama about then? Is that the legacy media as well because I literally watched Trump say it or TV not once but several times.
I think you will find most people on here are happy for the US to leave NATO and retreat into isolationism and we are all in agreement that Europe including us needs to spend more on defence.
What I don’t understand is what you think gives you the right to force Ukraine to surrender when your not fighting in Ukraine and your not even the biggest aid donar, is is that just legacy media I’m picking up on or do you general believe that Ukraine started this was and should surrender to Putin even though the Russians are loosing.
Yes Russia is loosing drones and missiles.And Ukraine is losing.
Europe isn’t riding on US coat tails. The US provides security in order that everyone else goes along with its rules on trade and finance – nobody else could print endless amounts of their own currency like the US does, whilst everyone looks the other way. No security means we don’t need to bother anymore – there are more stable partners in the world. That means no money for the US, so no army, so no power. Big change, but one that Europe can come out of stronger or unchanged. I can only see it weakening the US though.
The rest of the world sees the US becoming more like North Korea every day. The brain drain will be next.
This will have been arranged well before the present Administration took over. Unlike rogue states the US, Russia, UK, France and China have the sense to pre warn each other about test launches, avoids any issues.
I’ve never heard anyone call thermonuclear war an issue before. You must come from a tough neighbourhood.
It’s not even an issue if we’re all dead.
Does Elon get to play with these toys as well?
Why would he get to play. He has read only access. Look beyond them legacy media. They’re saving trillions.
Yes because social media is profoundly more reliable than traditional media.
Rightly or wrongly social media is a better source of information than legacy media, it has been for some time.
A better source on information… perhaps. A better source of accurate information? Less so.
Just like Trump, using made up figures that have absolutely no relationship with reality 🤡🤣
Interesting how Trump, the man who coined the phrase “fake news” is now axing fact checks on social media. If we learned anything during COVID it’s how dangerous and unreliable social media information is.
55 billion, hundreds of billions, trillions? Get your numbers straight Nath.
Isn’t it 8 billion, anyway?
No man, you’re saving trillions. Of Neurons. By not using them! Do you believe everything you’re told?? Do you not have eyes and brain?
Who are they threatening now, New Zealand?
OT, but this is fairly important for a defence site.
Hegseth plans on cutting the Pentagon budget by 8% annually for the next 5 years, looking for about $300 billion in savings out of an $850 billion annual budget. (some sectors are untouchable like nuclear, mexican border, drones).
Obviously savings can be made in any department, especially one with such a huge budget, but a 40% objective is akin to using dynamite instead of a scalpel.
That would put the US at around 2,5% GDP meanwhile asking Europe to spend 5%.
Hard to make sense of a lot of things lately.
When you understand that Trump is working for Putin it becomes clear what the endgame is.
forgot to mention the impact on jobs (shipyards, aero industry, military personnel etc…) since US military buys exclusively Made in America.
I don’t think this is achievable with expected backlash from Congress, private companies and the American people and pride in their military might.
I guess no more flyovers for the Super Bowl 🙂
It appears that the 8% thing is a case of terrible messaging by the White House and very poor reporting by the Washington Post. It looks like it’s an 8% reallocation of legacy defense programs per year to different defense programs, but still within the DoD. We’ll still have to wait and see what is on the chopping block, but it isn’t what it initially seemed. Its very confusing to keep track of what is actually happening these days.
ok thx for clarification, because that did seem insane.
It absolutely sounded insane and still might not be great, but apparently its not as bad as it seemed at first. I’m American and follow defense news every day, but its really hard to follow things clearly even from here in the US. Politics aside, the White House needs to hire a better press team, the messaging is pure chaos and isn’t helping anything.
From the UK, we will have none left soon and the way things are looking forward we are looking back, not good, everyone in Europe need to pull their socks up, unbelievable from what im hearing 😡
Actually, at least one national news article has stated that SECDEF has ordered a candidate list of programs for termination be prepared for FY26 implementation that represent either at least $50Bn or 8% of the budget (yes the two estimates do not equate), in order to fund The Donald’s defense priorities. Those priorities presumably include active duty reinforcements for the Southern border and funding the acquisition of an American variant of the Israeli Iron Dome system of systems. Admittedly, the collective usage of terminology is imprecise, but thegeneral intent conveyed. A robust, functional ABM system for CONUS could prove invaluable in the foreseeable future.
From the UK, we will have none left soon and the way things are looking forward we are looking back, not good, everyone in Europe need to pull their socks up, unbelievable from what im hearing 😡
Even if we here in the US are only going to focus on China, were “running to stand still” with our current military spending, we need a lot more to counter China, and I don’t know if it will happen.
The re-allocation of 8% of our DoD budget per year over the next 5 years to new military systems will be all sorts of interesting, to say the least.
Looking at the list of 17 things that will remain sacrosanct leaves a lot of room for wrong turns. I can’t say that I disagree with most of them, but it’s still very vague. Here are the 17 priorities:
1-Southwest Border Activities, 2-Combating transnational criminal orgs in the western hemisphere, 3-Audit, 4-Nuclear Modernization, 5-Collaberative Combat Aircraft, 6-Virginia class Submarines, 7-Executable Surface ships, 8-Homeland missile defense, 9-One-Way attack/Autonomous systems, 10-Counter-small UAS, 11-Priority critical cybersecurity, 12-Munitions, 13-Core readiness, 14-Munitions and energetics organic industrial bases, 15-Excecutable INDOPACOM Military construction, 16-INDOPACOM, NORTHCOM, SPACECOM, STRATCOM, CYBERCOM, and TRANSCOM funding, 17-Medical private sector care.
Apparently we are still interested in supporting Australia and Japan, South Korea, hopefully the Philippines, etc. as INDOPACOM was mentioned more than once.
One thing is for sure, Europe isn’t a priority. This comes as no surprise because he’s been pretty up-front about it, and even Biden was very tentative and stingy in his support of Ukraine when he had the chance. I would have thought a 3 year shooting war in Europe would have been enough of a wake-up call for Europe to increase military spending, but I guess it fell to an election over here to make it all sink in over there. I would have liked for things to have been different, but here we are.
You need a lot more than the largest defense budget in the world? Larger than everyone else’s put together?!
The MIC are taking the Mick 🤣
I agree about Europe being slow off the mark after a three year war (and longer than that, tbh). I think the issue is less the fact that the US is leaving the party, it’s that it has to insult all the other guests and turn the table over on the way out. Probably won’t get asked to come to the next one…
We’re all Doomed, doomed I say lol.
As long as we can chuckle now and then we will muddle through. I am primarily concerned with the orcs going after undersea cables and the Chinese disinformation.