US delays Minuteman III missile test amid tensions over Taiwan

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the delay to avoid further inflaming relations with China.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has ordered the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships to remain in the Taiwan region ‘to monitor the situation’. Picture: AFP

The Biden administration postponed a routine test launch of a US Air Force Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing as the Chinese military engages in a show of force near Taiwan, the White House said overnight on Thursday.

The USAF had planned to conduct the test launch this week from Vandenberg Air Force Base in ­California, but has now delayed it, officials said.

With the Chinese staging large, multi-day exercises near Taiwan, the White House also announced that the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships would remain in the region “to monitor the situation”.

A defence official said the warships would remain in the region for another week.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the extended naval presence, John Kirby, a White House spokesman, said at a news briefing. Mr Austin also ordered the missile-test delay to avoid further inflaming relations with China, Mr Kirby said. He didn’t respond to a reporter’s question on whether President Joe Biden had ordered the delay.

“As China engages in destabilising military exercises around Taiwan, the United States is demonstrating instead the behaviour of a responsible nuclear power by ­reducing the risks of miscalculation,” Mr Kirby said.

China is carrying out a four-day series of live-fire military exercises near Taiwan, including missile launches, in response to a visit to the island by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week. Beijing objected to the visit, saying that the US was under­mining its previous agreements to limit relations with Taiwan.

The US decision to keep ships in the region and delay the test were the latest adjustments by the US military made around Ms Pelosi’s visit to Taipei and China’s subsequent exercises.

The USS Ronald Reagan, which had been at port in Singapore, and other US Navy vessels were moved out to sea last week, defence officials said, to ensure the safety of Ms Pelosi’s travel. Those ships have remained away from the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait where China is staging its exercises and other displays of force. In addition, the US from the air is monitoring Chinese military activity, defence officials said.

“The President believed it was the prudent thing to do,” Mr Kirby said of the decision to keep the aircraft carrier in the region.

The postponed Minuteman III test is known as a “Glory Trip” and is generally done a few times a year to assess the reliability of the ICBM.

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test in April 2021 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Picture: US Air Force via AP

In March, the Pentagon took a similar action by cancelling a flight test of a Minuteman III missile to avoid escalating tensions with Moscow following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February and his statement that Russia was ensuring the “special combat readiness” of its nuclear forces.

The Pentagon at the time said the March cancellation wouldn’t affect the readiness of the US nuclear arsenal. Republican congress members criticised that move as a gesture that didn’t project strength in the face of Russian bluster. Some launched similar criticism about this week’s testing delay. Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the house armed services committee, criticised the March and August delays as “weak-kneed pearl-clutching attempts at appeasement” that will hurt military readiness and invite aggression from US adversaries.

“How long does the administration intend to allow Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to dictate our missile-test schedule,” Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said in a tweet referring to the leaders of Russia and China.

In defending the decision, the White House cited increased Chinese military activity including its launch of nearly a dozen ballistic missiles overnight toward Taiwan. “China has chosen to overreact and use the Speaker’s visit as a pretext to increase provocative military action in and around the Taiwan Strait,” Mr Kirby said.

US officials didn’t say how long the new delay might last, but one said it might last 10 days.

The Wall Street Journal