The U.S. conducted the first successful intercept of a ballistic missile


The United States has conducted the first successful intercept test of a medium-range ballistic missile off the coast of the island of Gaum in the Indo-Pacific region. About it on December 10 writes Reuters with reference to the press service of the Pentagon.
"During the event, a Standard Missile-3 Blk IIA missile launched from a vertical launcher at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam intercepted a surrogate medium-range ballistic missile more than 200 nautical miles off the coast of northeastern Guam, which was launched from an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft," the report said.
The U.S. Defense Department said it would continue to strengthen Guam's defenses in response to growing "adversary" missile threats.
On December 9, Russia suggested that the West had heard Russia's signal in connection with plans to transfer the new Oreshnik missile system to Belarus. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said that they took this signal very seriously.
Earlier, December 6, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to deliver Russian complexes for the launch of "Oreshnik" on the territory of the country. Putin, in turn, allowed the deployment of the corresponding complex on the territory of the republic in the second half of 2025.
December 7, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Belarusian Armed Forces Sergei Lagodiuk said that the decision to deploy the Russian complex "Oreshnik" in Belarus was taken against the background of the U.S. and German position on the deployment of medium-range missiles in Europe.
Putin announced the combat test of the Oreshnik ballistic missile, one of Russia's newest medium-range missile systems, on Nov. 21. He emphasized that the move was in response to the escalation by Western countries in Ukraine. In the following days, the head of state specified that Russia would continue these tests and that the decision on the serial production of the missiles had already been made.