A task force consisting of U.S. Air Force, Space Force and Navy personnel executed a test firing of a Minuteman III ICBM early this morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The firing was actually commanded from aboard a U.S. Navy E-6 nuclear command and control aircraft orbiting at about 32,000 feet off the coast of California.
“This test launch is part of routine and periodic activities intended to demonstrate that the United States’ nuclear deterrent is safe, secure, reliable and effective to deter 21st century threats and reassure our allies. Such tests have occurred over 300 times before, and this test is not the result of current world events,” reported an Air Force Global Strike Command press release. “The ICBM’s reentry vehicle traveled approximately 4,200 miles to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site located within Republic of the Marshall Islands at the Kwajalein Atoll.”
