The United States yesterday launched a nuclear-capable Minuteman 3 ICBM in a successful test of the weapon’s accuracy and dependability, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 23).
The unarmed missile lifted off at 1 a.m. Pacific time from a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. After a flight of 4,190 miles, the missile’s re-entry vehicle struck its target off of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the Air Force said.
"The fact that we can randomly select an on-alert operational ICBM from any missile wing and launch it without making any modifications to the components to hit a bulls-eye target is a testament to the system's reliability," mission director Lt. Col. Lesa Toler said in a statement. "I have complete confidence in our ICBM weapon system to perform as advertised” (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Nov. 5).
The missile’s flight was tracked using an X-band radar, two F-16 fighter jets equipped with infrared sensors and other missile defense elements, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said.
Data collected during the tracking drill is expected to help upgrade defensive sensor capabilities (U.S. Missile Defense Agency release, Nov. 5).