A Navy E-6B Mercury nuclear command plane launched a three-tipped, unarmed Air Force nuclear missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in an unusual but long-planned exercise Aug. 4. Sailors and Airmen from Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., aboard the E-6B worked with Airmen from ...
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.—You see the intercontinental ballistic missile before you hear it. Upon ignition in its underground silo, the horizon blooms bright red-orange, and a ball of light rises west over the Pacific Ocean. A dull roar intensifies as the unarmed nuclear missile ...