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.
As the Air Force readied for its June 21-22 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the service was also putting its Agile Combat Employment strategy into action, dispersing combat aircraft and Airmen from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in preparation for a possible Iranian retaliatory attack. Some defense experts say…
