{"id":204921,"date":"2026-03-05T03:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/204921\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T03:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:11:11","slug":"us-tests-minuteman-iii-nuclear-capable-missile-off-california-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/204921\/","title":{"rendered":"US tests Minuteman III nuclear-capable missile off California coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US tested a doomsday ballistic missile off the California coast Tuesday night \u2014 as war raged in the Middle East<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Minuteman III ballistic missile <\/a>\u2014 which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima \u2014 launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara at 11 p.m.<\/p>\n

The unarmed rocket, known as GT 254, hit its intended target near the Marshall Islands in the west-central Pacific Ocean, according to the US Space Force.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"missleThe Minuteman III ballistic missile was fired thousands of miles into the Pacific Ocean from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara at 11 p.m. U.S. Space Force\/Staff Sgt. Joshua LeRoi<\/p>\n

The missile\u00a0was fired to \u201cverify the effectiveness, readiness and accuracy,\u201d according to the Air Force Global Strike Command<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] allowed us to assess the performance of individual components of the missile system,\u201dLt. Col. Karrie Wray, commander of the 576th Flight Test Squadron said in a press release<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cBy continually assessing varying mission profiles, we are able to enhance the performance of the entire [Intercontinental Ballistic Missile] fleet, ensuring the maximum level of readiness for the land-based leg of the nation\u2019s nuclear triad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The test launch comes just days after the US and Israel launched an attack on Iran, killing the nation\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, <\/a>at his compound in Tehran \u2014 setting off a war in the region.<\/p>\n

President Trump later\u00a0vowed<\/a> to step up strikes on Iran, warning, \u201cThe big one is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"missleThe missile\u00a0hit its intended target in the Marshall Islands in the west-central Pacific Ocean, according to the US Space Force. U.S. Space Force\/Staff Sgt. Joshua LeRoi<\/p>\n

The Air Force Global Strike Command said Tuesday\u2019s test-launch was routine and scheduled years in advance.<\/p>\n

The Minuteman III missile is one part of America\u2019s nuclear triad, which include the ability to launch world-destroying weapons from the land, sea and air. <\/p>\n

The missiles are stored in silos scattered across the American west \u2014 and designed to deter nuclear armageddon, but ensuring that the US will be able to strike back if it is ever hit with an atomic attack.<\/p>\n

A Minuteman III missile was also launched in November after President Trump called for restarting the nuclear weapons tests. <\/p>\n

The missile can travel 6,000 miles at speeds of more than 15,000 mph and strike anywhere in the world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US tested a doomsday ballistic missile off the California coast Tuesday night \u2014 as war raged in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,19378,30046,2664,1880],"class_list":["post-204921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-iran","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-war","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}