The U.S. Navy and Air Force recently conducted two strategic missile tests to validate the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, U.S. Strategic Command announced Monday.
An Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, along with the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs and a crew from the USS Maryland, on Aug. 31 conducted a demonstration and shakedown operation, which is meant to demonstrate the readiness of the strategic weapon system on a ballistic missile submarine before deployment, the statement said. This involved the launch of an unarmed Trident II D5 missile off the coast of Florida, the 161st successful test flight of that missile, according to the release.
“The three-stage ballistic missile can travel a nominal range of 4,000 nautical miles and carry multiple independently targeted reentry bodies,” Lockheed Martin, the contractor that built the missile, said in a news release.
Lockheed noted it has been the Navy’s strategic missile prime contractor since 1955, and has also supported the Air Force’s intercontinental ballistic missile mission since then.
Air Force Global Strike Command airmen from the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana on Sept. 5 launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile with a test re-entry vehicle, STRATCOM said. Launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, it traveled roughly 4,200 miles to the Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll.
Adm. Cecil Haney, STRATCOM commander, said in the statement that the tests “prove that our nation’s strategic triad of submarines, ICBMs, and bombers is safe, secure, effective and ready.”
“But we cannot rely on that indefinitely,” Haney said. “Sustaining and modernizing the nuclear enterprise infrastructure is crucial to maintaining a strong, credible and flexible nuclear deterrent, which is essential to our national security and the security of United States’ allies and partners.”
