The United States Armed Forces carried out a test launch of an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile this Wednesday, the first since the country’s president, Donald Trump, announced.
The missile, a , was fired at the Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California, around 1:35 a.m. on Wednesday (10:35 a.m. in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands), as announced by the Department of Defense, hours later, on its X social network account.
The ministry has specified in the same message that it is an “operational test” of a missile capable of carrying up to three warheads and has reiterated its defense of “peace through strength” under the White House and the Pentagon.
This same Wednesday and in response to the announced intentions of the tenant of the White House, the Russian president, he has ordered the main officials of the Government to present proposals on possible tests with nuclear weapons. Furthermore, he stressed that “there are no plans to deviate from these obligations”, although he recalled that he already said in 2023 that “if the United States or other States party to this treaty carry out these tests, Russia will have to carry out appropriate measures in response.”
During yesterday’s meeting of the Federation Executive, the Russian Defense Minister, Andrei Beloúsov, proposed to Putin to begin “immediately” preparations to carry out “large-scale” nuclear tests. “The preparation of forces and means in the central range in the Nueva Zembla archipelago allows us to guarantee its completion in a short period of time,” he said.
Belousov argued that everything indicates that Washington will resume these tests, since “the United States carries out an accelerated modernization of its offensive strategic weapons” and “regularly” carries out maneuvers of its strategic forces that include “preventive nuclear attacks against Russian territory”, as was the case with the Global Thunder last October. “They are working on the construction of a new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile with a new nuclear warhead. Its range is 13,000 kilometers,” he said and alluded to the development of a Columbia atomic submarine, a B-21 Raider heavy bomber and nuclear-charged cruise missiles.
He also highlighted that the Americans have proceeded to complete the program, which includes both anti-missile interception and pre-launch destruction of missiles from Russia and China.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shake hands after their meeting on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025.
Waiting for “clarifications”
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov has stated that Moscow is awaiting “clarifications” from the Trump Administration regarding the recently announced nuclear tests and that, according to the US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, they will not include “explosions.”
To justify this measure, Trump has cited on several occasions Russia’s latest weapons tests, which included the launch of the ‘Burevestnik’ missile and the nuclear-powered supertorpedo ‘Poseidon’, although the Kremlin recalled that they do not carry nuclear warheads or have explosions of this type.
A report presented in August by the United States Congressional Research Service stated that the country could carry out nuclear weapons tests in a period of between 24 and 36 months once the president gave the order, as reported by the US television network.
Neither the United States, Russia nor China have carried out nuclear tests since 1996, when Beijing did so. Moscow did it in 1990 and the United States in 1992.
