The U.S. military test launched an intercontinental ballistic missile today to showcase the readiness of its nuclear arsenal.
The launch of the unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) took place on Wednesday (May 21) at 3:01 a.m. ET (12:01 a.m. local Pacific time, or 0701 GMT). The missile launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, sending a single reentry vehicle 4,200 miles (6,760 kilometers) to impact in the U.S. Army’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site in the Kwajalein Atoll, which is part of the Marshall Islands.
As with other ICBM tests, today’s launch was planned months in advance and “is not a response to current world events,” U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta wrote in a statement.
The launch was overseen by the U.S. Air Force’s Global Strike Command, who worked in conjunction with units from the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Force Base, Wyoming, and the 341st Missile Wing from Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana to support the test.
Global Strike Command leaders praised the personnel who supported the test, which was aimed at demonstrating the United States’ nuclear weapons capabilities. Those capabilities are threefold, and they are known as the nuclear triad. The triad includes ground-launched missiles like the Minuteman III, submarine-launched missiles, and nuclear weapons carried aboard aircraft.
“This ICBM test launch underscores the strength of the nation’s nuclear deterrent and the readiness of the ICBM leg of the triad,” Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in the Space Force statement. “This powerful safeguard is maintained by dedicated Airmen — missileers, defenders, helicopter operators and the teams who supports them — who ensure the security of the nation and its allies.”
The Minuteman III is expected to be phased out by 2030 and replaced by a new ICBM known as the LGM-35 Sentinel, which is being developed by Northrop Grumman.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles are powered by rocket engines; they leave Earth’s atmosphere before reentering via unpowered descents. They can travel over 3,400 miles (5,500 kilometers) and can deploy multiple independent reentry vehicles (MIRVs) that each contain a nuclear warhead.
However, the Minuteman III hasn’t carried multiple warheads since 2014 in compliance with arms reduction treaties, according to the U.S. Air Force.
Most reentry vehicles today travel along ballistic (free falling) trajectories, but militaries around the world are developing and testing new classes of reentry vehicles that can travel at hypersonic speeds and maneuver while gliding toward their targets, making them much more difficult to defend against.
The first ICBM was developed by the Soviet Union and launched in May 1957 using the same rocket technology that sent the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit.
The United States launched its first ICBM months later, known as the SM-65 Atlas. Versions of the Atlas rocket would go on to launch the Project Mercury astronauts into orbit.
The reliable Atlas-Centaur rocket, which flew for over 40 years, was derived from the SM-65 Atlas missiles. The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, still in service today, is an ancestor of these early Atlas rockets.
