Overview
- Newsweek, citing navigational notices, reports a planned Minuteman III launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base toward the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein.
- The reported trajectory mirrors a May non-armed flight that covered roughly 6,700 kilometers over the Pacific.
- The move follows President Donald Trump’s directive to resume tests of nuclear systems, with the Energy Department stressing this does not involve nuclear detonations.
- Related recent activity included four unarmed Trident II D5 launches by U.S. submarine forces in the Atlantic in September.
- Public estimates from the Federation of American Scientists note about 400 Minuteman III missiles remain in U.S. silos across Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming.