By Pacific Island Times News Staff
The U.S. military this week launched an intercontinental ballistic missile test, which was fired from the Space Force base in California and flew over the Marshall Islands.
According to a press release from Air Force Global Strike Command, airmen and Navy aircrew launched an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM equipped with multiple targetable re-entry vehicles from aboard the Airborne Launch Control System on Nov. 5 at 11 p.m. Pacific Time from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Officials said the ICBM's reentry vehicle traveled approximately 4,200 miles to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Kwajalein Atoll.
“These tests are demonstrative of what Striker Airmen bring to the fight if called by the president,” said Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command.
“An airborne launch validates the survivability of our ICBMs, which serve as the strategic backstop of our nation’s defense and defense of allies and partners," he added.
The test came on the heels of North Korea's Oct. 31 test of the country’s newest ICBM, which is estimated to be capable of flying over 9,320 miles and designed to reach the United States. North Korea test-fired its new Hwasong-19 ICBM into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
On Sept. 24, China fired a dummy warhead-equipped ICBM into the high seas in the Pacific Ocean. North Korean officials said the missile “fell into expected sea areas.”
However, officials said the recent U.S. missile test launch was just part of routine and periodic activities to reassure U.S. allies that its nuclear deterrent “is safe, secure, reliable and effective to deter 21st-century threats.”
“Such tests have occurred over 300 times before, and this test is not the result of current world events,” officials said.
The 377th Test and Evaluation Group staged the test launch, using missile assets and personnel from the Air Force Global Strike Command, supported by a Space Force launch facility.
“This test is about as joint as you can get. We, the Air Force 377th Test and Evaluation Group are launching an Air Force missile that has Department of Energy components on board, utilizing a Space Force base and range, flying across a Navy-operated test range, terminating at an Army test range, and utilizing the Coast Guard to protect our safe zones,” said Col. Dustin Harmon, 377 TEG commander.
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