US launches nuclear missile to prove how 'effective' it is just weeks after experts claim WW3 has 'already begun'

The US Air Force has apparently been putting its nuclear deterrent to the test at a bit of an awkward time.

On Wednesday (February 19), Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an intercontinental ballistic missile to show the nation's nuclear deterrent is 'lethal' and ready to go at a moment's notice.

The Minuteman III practise run kicked off at 1am from its Vandenberg Space Force Base in California which the US Strategic Command said was launched as a part of 'routine and periodic activities' to demonstrate the US' 'nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure, reliable, and effective in deterring 21st-century threats' and to reassure the allied nations.

The ICBM from California on February 19 (YouTube/@VideoFromSpace)

It shot off, travelling 15,000 miles per hour, to a test zone near Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, completing the 4,200-mile trip in around 22 minutes.

The weapon is designed to hit any target around the globe within 30 minutes and, when loaded with three Mk 12A nuclear warheads, can rain down a torrent of destruction to the tune of 350,000 tons of TNT.

However, while the missile was unarmed, it came at somewhat poor timing as Russia had deployed its 'Yars' intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for combat training just hours before.

Russia's Yars ICBM on parade in Moscow in May last year (ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images)

The flex between the two comes as the Doomsday Clock warned us back in 1947 that the nuclear arms race between the US and the Soviet Union posed the greatest threat to humanity, and this year it has been set at 89 seconds to midnight almost 80 years later for the same reason.

The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board (SASB) took into account nuclear weapons threats, the climate crisis, artificial intelligence, bio-threats and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East when setting the morbid countdown to 'the closest it has ever been to catastrophe'.

The last time the world's population could sleep easy without the threat of impending doom at the push of a button was in 1991, as the clock was pushed back to 17 minutes to midnight after the end of the Cold War and as the US and Soviet Union signed a treaty to cut its nuclear weapons arsenals.

A previous ballistic missile test from Kwajalein, Hawaii, in 2001 (Ballistic Missile Defense Organization/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, national security expert Mark Toth and former US intelligence officer Col. Jonathan Sweet said World War Three is already underway with the rise of disinformation, cyberattacks, and economic manipulation.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, of the British Royal Air Force, also said at a conference: "With the rapid advancement of technology and the economic, technical, and warfighting capabilities of other major powers, we no longer have total air supremacy."

Still, the US Air Force says the latest missile comes as 300 other similar tests have been completed in the past and reassured people that it is not 'a response to current world events'.

Acting Secretary of the Air Force Gary Ashworth said: "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.

"It also provides confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrence mission.”

The test also 'collected and analyzed performance and other key data points', Col. Dustin Harmon, 377th TEG commander added, which will 'pave the way for Sentinel', a more 'cost-effective' missile that is being created for the mid-2030s.