The test, likely involving the JL-3 and coming just after the United States’ 250th Independence Day, underscored China’s increasingly credible sea-based nuclear deterrent.

China has test-fired a nuclear-capable long-range missile with a dummy warhead in the South Pacific, Chinse media has confirmed.

It is China’s first known submarine-based missile test since 1982, and the first known to be fired from a nuclear-powered submarine.