Latest news with #377thTestandEvaluationGroup
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
US test fires Minuteman III nuclear missile a day after Donald Trump announced Golden Dome
A day after President Donald Trump announced the plan to develop and deploy a massive anti-missile defense system named Golden Dome to protect the entire US, the country demonstrated its readiness to launch nuclear-tipped projectile capable of hitting targets several thousand miles away. The nuclear-capable Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was test launched as part of the nuclear deterrent demonstration by a joint team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen. The Minuteman III was not armed but equipped with a single Mark-21 High Fidelity Re-Entry Vehicle and fired from the Western Test Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base , California on May 21 at 12:01 am Pacific Time. The ICBM's reentry vehicle flew nearly 4,200 miles (6759 kilometers) and splashed in the Pacific Ocean in US Army Space and Missile Defense Command's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site located within Republic of the Marshall Islands at the Kwajalein Atoll. 'This ICBM test launch underscores the strength of the nation's nuclear deterrent and the readiness of the ICBM leg of the triad. This powerful safeguard is maintained by dedicated Airmen – missileers, defenders, helicopter operators and the teams who supports them – who ensure the security of the nation and its allies,' said General Thomas Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command in a press release following the test firing. Also Read: Trump's Golden Dome, the future of defence or a Star Wars fantasy in space? US's one and only dedicated ICBM test organization, Vandenberg's 377th Test and Evaluation Group, oversaw the test launch. The press release quoted the 377th Test and Evaluation Group commander Colonel Dustin Harmon applauding the missile test. Live Events 'Minuteman III remains the bedrock of our nation's strategic deterrent and the unwavering dedication of the Airmen who ensure its readiness are a testament to its inherent lethality. Their expertise and commitment are vital to maintaining this credible force for peace. As we look to the future, these same Airmen are paving the way for the Sentinel ICBM, ensuring a seamless transition to this next-generation capability and the continued security of our nation," said Col. Harmon. Minuteman III ICBM details In service since 1970, Minuteman III can carry a single nuclear warhead and can hit a target 8,700 miles (14,000 km) away. It is 18.3 meters longs and weighs 36,030 kilograms. The deadly missile reaches a speed of Mach 23 (17,500 mph; 28,200 km/h) in the terminal phase while hitting the target. The thermonuclear warhead it carries can be detonate either on contact with the target or even be programmed to airburst above the same to impact a larger area. President Trump had on May 20 announced the multi-billion dollar Golden Dome missile shield which would use space-based assets along with land and sea based radars to track and intercept enemy missiles launched at targets in the US. The defensive shield project will be led by Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations General Michael A. Guetlein. However, a major component of the Golden Dome is the space-based interceptors, a technology which is yet to be fully developed and mastered.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
ICBM test a work of human as well as technical coordination
Feb. 24—VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. — In tight confines 60 feet underground, Air Force missileers rotate 24-hour shifts at ICBM missile launch control centers in pairs, waiting for a message they hope never arrives: An order from the president of the United States directing a nuclear strike. For a small group of journalists touring the missile range at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California last week, Air Force personnel demonstrated the sequence of actions involved in launching a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The process is designed to eliminate the possibility of an accidental launch, involving an extensive checklist of actions confirmed verbally at each step, to verify the authenticity of a message and quickly confirm a launch command by a unanimous vote of multiple personnel. The mechanism to launch requires two operators to manipulate switches with both hands in unison. The demonstration took place in a nearly exact replica of launch control centers overseeing an arsenal of 400 ground-based nuclear arms in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. That day, the range prepared to launch an unarmed Minuteman III on a test flight to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 4,200 miles away from California's central coast. The successful mission lifted off at 1 a.m. on Feb. 19. Among the airmen and officers on base to witness the launch, there was an air of excitement prompted not only by the feat of engineering and admiration at the performance of a technology dating back to the 1970s, but of the human teamwork behind the mission. The test was conducted by the Air Force's 377th Test and Evaluation Group, part of the 377th Air Base Wing headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. Among the observers of the launch was Kirtland's installation commander, Col. Michael Power. ICBM test launches are scheduled three times per year, on dates selected five years in advance, which base officials said debunks any notion that the tests are ever a response to recent world events. As part of the process, an active missile from the arsenal is selected at random, disarmed of nuclear material, and transported to Vandenberg. The missile launched on Feb. 19 had been deployed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. At a missile processing facility, housed in a windowless building sitting behind a locked perimeter fence, Staff Sgt. James Harris was at work on a missile to be launched this summer. The Minuteman III is a three-stage rocket measuring 60 feet in length. Over a period of months, missile handling technicians will equip the rocket with telemetry equipment, redundant navigation systems and explosives to destroy the missile in case the mission needs to be aborted mid-flight. The process of outfitting the missile for a test launch takes months, Harris said. The missile that launched on Feb. 19 arrived at this facility last November. The team preparing the missile will then transfer it to another team, the missile maintenance technicians responsible for transporting the missile from this building to a launch facility on the range on large, specially outfitted trucks. The facility from which the Feb. 19 flight launched sits behind a fence close to a beach in waters patrolled by great white sharks. An occasional wave crashed against the rocks and onto the concrete near the portal through which the missile would emerge. The first visitors to the scene after launch would be firefighters to extinguish any fires ignited by the rocket. Some visitors, military and civilian, observed the launch from an outdoor observation point at a distance overlooking the launch facility. Others observed it in a control room at the 377th Test and Evaluation Group's headquarters on base, through video monitors. In that room, a large map showed the flight corridor defining the missile's intended path up to the exosphere and down to the ocean's surface near the atoll. The mission involved extensive coordination with other branches of the armed forces to make sure the path was clear of boat and airplane traffic as well as satellites, space debris and the International Space Station. The human coordination was highlighted by Gen. Thomas Bussiere, the Air Force's Global Strike Commander, hours before the Feb. 19 flight in an interview with the Journal. He stressed that while the test launches are part of a nuclear deterrent strategy, its primary purpose was testing and evaluation of a weapons system more than 50 years old, to verify its reliability and accuracy. Then he turned focus to the airmen responsible for that technology. "It's all useless without our airmen," Bussiere said. "The most valuable weapon system we have comes with a Social Security number, not a tail number; and that is the underpinning of our deterrence force." After a two-hour delay to assure its flight path was clear, the Minuteman missile burst from the launch facility at 1 a.m., a ball of light emerging from an amber gust of flame, with observers watching in rapt silence as the glow slowly disappeared with a distant growl. The uniformed airmen then burst into applause and cheers as many embraced one another — several of them shedding tears.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Kirtland command at Vandenberg for ICBM test launch
Feb. 17—LOMPOC, Calif. — 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 377th 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, 377th 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.
