US launches Minuteman ICBM with three test warheads

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. –The U.S. fired a Minuteman III missile here at 11:01 p.m. Pacific time on Nov. 5, a key test of the weapon’s ability to hit its targets with multiple warheads.

The Minuteman III missiles, which form an important part of the US nuclear triad, each carry a nuclear-armed re-entry vehicle. But the tested missile carried three test warheads.

The ICBM test was controlled from an airborne command post to test the U.S.’s ability to launch its nuclear deterrent from a survivable platform.

“These tests are a testament to what Striker Airmen bring to the fight when called upon by the president,” Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a news release. “An air launch confirms the survivability of our ICBMs, which serve as a strategic backbone for the defense of our country and the defense of allies and partners.”

After the takeoff order was transmitted from a U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury, the Minuteman III took off from a silo in the launch facility on the north side of this base on the California coast. Airmen from the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., were aboard the E-6 along with the Marine crew.

The three test reentry vehicles – a high-fidelity joint test assembly carrying non-nuclear explosives and two telemetry joint test assembly objects – hit the nearby Reagan Test Site about 30 minutes after launch of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands flight of about 4,200 miles.

“They’re basically a dummy warhead,” said Col. Dustin Harmon, commander of the 377th Test and Evaluation Group, the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missile testing unit, in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. “There are two different types. One is equipped with telemetry, so it has a radio transmitter, antennas, gyroscopes, accelerometers – all things that can detect motion and motion. And we fly these, or we can put one in there called high fidelity. It is constructed similarly to a real weapon, except that we use substitute materials and therefore it is designed to fly similarly to a real weapon. … It contains the explosives that a normal warhead would use to trigger a detonation, but there is nothing to power it.”

The launch on November 5th was a remarkable test in several ways.

“This is actually a unique launch,” Harmon said. “We fly three warheads, while the field missiles in the north only have one. But we want to verify the weapon system’s ability to fly three because it is a prerequisite for the missile to be able to do that… and we launch it from the airborne platform.”

The missiles themselves, which will be flight tested, will be randomly selected from one of the country’s three ICBM bases: Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.; FE Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming; and Minot Air Force Base, ND The ICBM launched in this test was brought from Minot Air Force Base.

“We report to U.S. Strategic Command and ultimately the White House on the reliability of the fleet,” Harmon said. “Firing the missiles from here is data collection.”

Harmon’s test group will analyze the flight’s data and provide a report in about a year. Vandenberg’s team sifts through around 4,000 parameters and several gigabytes of data. Lt. Gen. Michael J. Lutton, deputy commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said the report will be a comprehensive account of all missile systems.

“You see assessments of all the different stages of the rocket, the subsystems of the rockets, so you collect data on all of those elements and then you collect data on the payload, the reentry vehicles,” Lutton said. “There is a mission partnership with the folks at the lower level and our national labs to help us with these assessments.”

There are currently 400 Minuteman III missiles in use in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming.

“We are using an operational missile from the North because we wanted to test the reliability and accuracy of the weapon system,” Harmon said.

Minuteman III test launches are regularly scheduled events that occur approximately three times a year. They are planned well in advance – the rocket for the next test launch, scheduled for February, recently arrived here – although the Pentagon has postponed tests in the past to ease tensions with Russia over Ukraine and with China over Taiwan get over.

The US government formally notified Russia of the launch in advance under a 1988 bilateral agreement. More than 145 countries also received advance notice of the launch under the Hague Code of Conduct (HCOC), an international agreement on launch notifications.

The US also notified China in advance, a Defense Department spokesman told Air & Space Forces Magazine. China notified the United States in September that it would launch an intercontinental ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean. There is no formal agreement between Washington and Beijing requiring such notifications, but both sides have provided them to avoid miscalculations.

“The United States provided this ad hoc advance notification in the spirit of reciprocity to encourage the People’s Republic of China to join the HCOC and negotiate a bilateral advance notification agreement between the United States and the People’s Republic of China,” the spokesperson said, referring to to the People’s Republic of China by an acronym.

The launch of the Minuteman III, monitored with special sensors, is known as the Glory Trip and the November 5 flight was GT-251. The last time the US launched an ICBM with three reentry vehicles was in 2023. That year, the US also conducted an aerial launch.

The Minuteman III missile was the first U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile to be deployed with multiple warheads. But two of the three warheads of the deployed Minuteman III missiles were later removed, converting them into single-warhead missiles. This step was completed in June 2014 as the US sought to comply with arms control limits agreed with Russia and implement the Pentagon’s 2010 Nuclear Posture Review.

Concerns about further delays in the U.S. strategic modernization program led a congressionally mandated commission last year to recommend that the Pentagon be prepared to add additional warheads to its existing arsenal of Minuteman missiles to combat the maintain existing troop strengths.

The LGM-30 Minuteman III, in service since 1970, is scheduled to be replaced by the LGM-35A Sentinel, which faced significant budget overruns.

“For example, if Sentinel experiences a delay while a fraction of the Minuteman III force is down, warheads from the aging Minuteman III unit could be uploaded to the remaining Minuteman III unit to keep the number of deployed land-based warheads constant said the 12-member panel, made up of former officials and experts selected by Democratic and Republican congressional leaders.

The expansion of Russia and China’s nuclear forces could also prompt the United States to consider increasing its deployed land- and sea-based missiles. The US currently has 400 operational Minuteman III missiles under the New Start Treaty with Russia, which expires in February 2026. The Minuteman III rocket is designed to last into the 2030s.

“We have postponed modernization for almost three decades,” Lutton said. “I believe we have a responsibility to taxpayers to ensure that the resources provided to us ensure the national security of the nation. That’s exactly where we are. … Make sure every requirement is codified and that every requirement meets the needs of the future mission to deter any potential adversaries that are out there and defend the nation.”