The new U.S. Space Force saw one of its most important missions so far today as it helped test an intercontinental ballistic missile.



The Minuteman III missile sent a reentry vehicle over four thousand miles to land at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific.

The Air Force plans to replace Minuteman III with a new missile, GBSD, starting in 2030.

The U.S. Space Force, America’s newest military service branch early this morning conducted a test of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile was part of a routine test of America’s missile force. Minuteman III is slated to be replaced with a new missile, Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, sometime in the 2030s.

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The Minuteman III missile roared out of its launch silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base at approximately 12:33 a.m. California time. The missile’s MK. 21 reentry vehicle traveled 4,200 miles to splash down at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The reentry vehicle did not carry a live thermonuclear warhead.

The test, known as FTU-2, was conducted by Air Force Global Strike Command and took place at Vandenberg, the home of the 30th Space Wing, which oversees launches at the southern California base and is a part of the new U.S. Space Force. Although a separate service, the Space Force is technically part of the Air Force, in the same way the Marine Corps is technically part of the Navy.

The Pentagon typically conducts about five Minuteman III tests a year, each time drawing a missile at random from the missile force and launching it to ensure it works. These tests are much more important as the Minuteman III missile fleet is approximately 50 years old and was not supposed to remain part of the U.S. nuclear arsenal for this long. And as Breaking Defense reported yesterday, the Air Force is testing a new fuze for the Mk. 21 reentry vehicle.

The Minuteman III entered into service in 1970 and today 400 missiles sit in silos across the American West , spread between the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming, the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, and the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Each wing is made up of three squadrons controlling 50 missiles each. An additional 50 missiles are maintained on standby. Each missile on active duty is equipped with a single 300 or 335 kiloton thermonuclear warhead packing the explosive equivalent of 300,000 to 335,000 tons of TNT.

Controlling launch facilities and overseeing space launches will likely make up the bulk of the Space Force’s duties for the foreseeable future. The service will also maintain America’s military satellite constellation, watch for missile launches worldwide, and keep tabs on the military space forces of other space powers.

The Minuteman III is an old missile, but it’s been repeatedly modernized, and according to the Federation of American Scientists and the U.S. Air Force, the missiles “are basically new missiles except for the shell.” The new fuze is part of a raft of upgrades that will keep the missiles in service until at least 2030.

The Air Force is planning a new replacement missile, Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, but a competition to develop it basically ended after Boeing dropped out, leaving Northrop the sole competitor. Ground Based Strategic Deterrent will replace all Minuteman III missiles at an estimated cost of $85 billion .

Source: Gizmodo

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