The United States announced Wednesday (May 5th) the failure of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test during take-off, specifying that the missile was unarmed and that an investigation was underway to discover the cause of the malfunction. .
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The US military plans to retry this test firing intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of US nuclear deterrence and reassure Washington's allies, the US Air Force said in a statement. The missile was to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for testing as the US Air Force regularly performs. The press release does not specify where it was to crash, but the missiles tested are generally directed towards the Marshall Islands, and are damaged at sea.
In service for 50 years, Minuteman III has been the only surface-to-air missile in the United States nuclear arsenal since 2005. It is installed in launch silos at three United States military bases in Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana. The US nuclear arsenal also includes Trident missiles, launched from the sea and deployed on US submarines, and nuclear bombs carried by strategic bombers.
