U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command airmen from the service’s bases in Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska on Wednesday launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, the Air Force announced.
The operational test involved an unarmed ICBM with a single test re-entry vehicle containing a telemetry package, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The re-entry vehicle reached the Marshall Islands roughly 4,200 miles away from the launch site, the Air Force said.
The service said these test launches are meant to collect data to verify the reliability and “operational credibility” of the ICBM weapon system, a key part of the U.S. nuclear deterrent as the land-based leg of the nuclear triad. The Air Force’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent Program, to be deployed in the late 2020s, will replace the aging Minuteman III ICBM.