U.S. Tests Minuteman Missile

The United States tested a Minuteman 3 strategic missile yesterday, sending a single mock nuclear warhead 4,200 miles after its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, July 21, 2006).

The test was the first in years to be conducted from a closed-door silo, requiring the silo’s 105-ton concrete cap to be blasted open just before launch, according to AP.  The test was also the first to use global positioning satellite data to aid navigation (Associated Press/North County Times, Feb. 07).

The closed-door testing was aimed to better simulate real-world conditions, in which U.S. missiles are deployed in sealed silos to protect them from nuclear first strikes.  Previous Vandenberg tests had sealed test silos with plastic to protect the missiles from weather, but that system failed once in 2005, disabling a test missile (Janene Scully, The Lompoc Record, Feb. 8).

The missile tested yesterday had been pulled at random from a field of deployed missiles at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota (Air Force News, Feb. 7).

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