Watch the US Air Force carry out dramatic nighttime Minuteman III test

Air Power International Strike Command carried out a take a look at of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile late Tuesday evening.

The ICBM, which was outfitted with a number of focused reentry autos, launched from Vandenberg House Power Base in California at about 11 p.m. Pacific time. It then flew about 4,200 miles, at roughly 15,000 miles per hour, to a ballistic missile take a look at web site within the Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll.

Sensors at that facility, the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Protection Take a look at Web site, collected radar, optical and telemetry knowledge within the missile’s terminal section to judge how effectively it carried out.

Airmen from the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron from Offutt Air Power Base in Nevada launched the missile utilizing an airborne launch management system aboard a Navy E-6B Mercury plane. The missile was chosen at random from missiles primarily based at Minot Air Power Base in North Dakota, transported greater than 1,300 miles to Vandenberg after which reassembled for the take a look at launch.

“These exams are demonstrative of what striker airmen deliver to the combat if referred to as by the president,” International Strike Commander Gen. Thomas Bussiere stated. “An airborne launch validates the survivability of our ICBMs, which function the strategic backstop of our nation’s protection and protection of allies and companions.”

The Air Power stated these exams, which have been carried out greater than 300 occasions, are routinely accomplished to indicate the U.S. nuclear deterrent is protected, safe, dependable and efficient. Tuesday’s take a look at was not motivated by present world occasions, the Air Power stated.

The U.S. has about 400 nuclear-armed Minuteman III missiles primarily based in 450 silos throughout Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska. However these ICBMs are greater than 50 years outdated and nearing the top of their lives. The Air Power is planning to exchange the Minuteman III arsenal with the LGM-35A Sentinel within the 2030s. The Sentinel program, nonetheless, is beset by rising anticipated future prices and the Air Power is searching for methods to deliver the worth down.