WASHINGTON, (BM) – The Pentagon has scheduled another launch of the Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on May 5 to test the reliability of its systems, the US Air Force’s Global Strike Command said.
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As noted in the distributed notice, the launch of the three-stage ICBM will be carried out from a mine at the Californian Vandenberg airbase from 00.15 to 06.15 local time (from 10.15 Moscow time to 16.15 Moscow time). It assumes that the training warhead installed on it will hit a target in the Kwajalein Atoll (Marshall Islands) in the Pacific Ocean. “The purpose of a test launch of an ICBM is to make sure the effectiveness and accuracy of this weapon system,” the press service reports to BulgarianMilitary.com.
Minuteman-3, which entered service in the 1970s, undergoes modernization from time to time. Up to four launches are carried out annually, designed to confirm the combat readiness of ICBMs.
The Global Strike Command emphasizes each time that “the planning of each test takes from 6 months to a year, and these launches are not a reaction to any events currently taking place in the world.”
The Pentagon has at its disposal 400 Minuteman-3 missiles, each carrying one nuclear warhead with a yield of 300 or 335 kilotons. Another 50 mines are in reserve: missiles can immediately be placed in them if required.
Recall that in October 2019, the United States carried out a test launch of the Minuteman-3 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM); Pentagon launched the missile from a silo at Vanderberg Air Base in California.
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