LOMPOC, Calif. (Tribune News Service) — The Air Force test squadron responsible for evaluating U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile capability plans a test launch late Tuesday or early Wednesday from Vandenberg Space Force Base on California’s central coast.

The 377 Test and Evaluation Group, assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque and based at Vandenberg, conducts a few test launches a year to evaluate the system’s performance and accuracy. The tests are also a demonstration of the Department of Defense’s nuclear arms capability. The most recent test was carried out successfully in November.

“An airborne launch validates the survivability of our ICBMs, which serve as the strategic backstop of our nation’s defense and defense of allies and partners,” Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a statement following the Nov. 6, 2024 test.

Tuesday’s launch will be observed by Air Force Col. Michael Power, 377 Air Base Wing and installation commander at Kirtland, overseeing the ICBM test organization as well as other operations and programs in space, missile and laser technology. Power assumed command of the 377th in 2023.

The test will launch an unarmed Minuteman III missile, of which 400 are in service at bases in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota, according to the Air Force. Weighing nearly 40 tons and propelled by three solid-fuel rocket motors, the missile travels at speeds reaching 15,000 miles per hour.

Besides the ground-based ICBM system, the U.S. nuclear weapon arsenal includes submarine-launched missiles and bombs designed to drop from the air, together known by the Department of Defense as the “nuclear triad.”

Regular test launches are scheduled years in advance and the missiles are randomly selected from the U.S. arsenal.

Preparation for the test is tightly scheduled. It begins early Tuesday morning ahead of a six-hour flight window in the evening. The conditions are also carefully coordinated on the ground and in the airspace from Vandenberg to the target test site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands — a distance of approximately 4,200 miles.

The Minuteman series has been in service for more than 50 years and is slated to be replaced in the coming years by the Sentinel missile. Yet the timeframe for that changeover has been unclear since the Pentagon announced a restructuring of the program last year in response to cost overruns.

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