The Air Force at 3:14 a.m. July 20, local time, successfully launched a Minuteman III ICBM from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. It was unarmed and fitted with three dummy re-entry vehicles. The unarmed RVs flew 4,200 miles before hitting their pre-determined targets at the Reagan Test Site in the Marshall Islands. According to a USAF release, the launch was part of an operational test “to determine the weapon system’s reliability and accuracy.” It “also exercised US Strategic Command’s Airborne Launch Control System, which flies on a Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft. The launch authority was the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg.
If the Air Force is in line for a big budget bump from President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027, the head of Air Combat Command said he would make aircraft spare parts his top spending priority—but cautioned that more money to buy parts won’t equal a…
