The Air Force had to call off at the last minute a planned July 19 launch of an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The flight was supposed to test the missile’s reliability, said the Air Force. The launch delay is expected to be brief, and the ICBM could fly as early as Thursday. The missile’s three warheads will be hurled toward a target in the Marshall Islands area. The launch authority is the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg.
The Air Force is launching an effort to develop a new stand-off missile with a range of 1,000 nautical miles, or 1,150 miles, that would eventually be used for both air-to-air and air-to-surface missions.