The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as a test of the accuracy and reliability of the weapon system, a key component of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
Airmen from the Global Strike Command’s 90th Missile Wing, based at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, launched the ICBM, which featured a single test re-entry vehicle containing a telemetry package for operational testing, the service said. The missile traveled roughly 4,200 miles to the Marshall Islands.
The ICBM test launch was the service’s fourth this year.
The Air Force said in an announcement that the test was “not a response to recent North Korean actions,” even though the regime last Friday launched its own ICBM, which came down into the Sea of Japan. The country has also conducted several underground nuclear detonations over the past years, most recently in September 2016.
Experts and U.S. officials have for years remained concerned about the country’s nuclear ambitions. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week in a statement that the United States “seeks the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” and “will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea nor abandon our commitment to our allies and partners in the region.”
