The Air Force launch an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile in the early morning hours on Wednesday, a test to verify the functioning of hardware intended to extend the service life of the nuclear delivery vehicle.
The Air Force development test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California happened one year from the day the U.S.-Russian New START nuclear arms control accord will expire, unless the presidents of those countries agree to an extension.
New START limits the two nations to each deploying no more than 1,550 warheads across 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers. The U.S. and Russia can extend the treaty for five years past its 2021 expiration, to Feb. 5, 2026.
A development launch uses a spare missile to test new technology. Such launches differ from what the Air Force calls an operational test launch, in which the service selects a random deployed missile from a U.S. silo, disarms it, and launches it from Vandenberg to make sure it works as designed.
The missile launched Wednesday flew about 4,200 miles to splash down somewhere near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, some 2,500 miles southwest of Honolulu, according to an Air Force announcement.
Minuteman III is the silo-based intercontinental ballistic missile that makes up the land-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad. The missiles would be used to destroy an adversary’s ability to wage nuclear war on the U.S., and to destroy its economy — along with much of its population — to help ensure that foe could not recover from a U.S. nuclear strike.
The Air Force wants to start replacing some Minuteman III missiles with the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) beginning in 2030. The GBSD missiles will carry W87-1 warheads provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration, which plans in 2024 to start casting the plutonium cores, or pits, of the warheads at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
