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VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. — An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile failed early Wednesday morning due to an anomaly during a test launch. According to the Air Force Global Strike Command, the unarmed Minuteman III missile was "safely terminated" by Space Launch Delta 30, during its test launch at approximately 12:01 a.m.

The U.S. Air Force and Space Force collaborated on a test missile launch Wednesday amid rising tensions with North Korea. Air Force Global Strike Command test launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Vandenberg Space Force Base. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan issued a stern warning to North Korea during a press briefing on Tuesday, responding to reports that dictator Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin may meet in-person.

In recent days it has been reported in the Chosun Ilbo (one of South Korea’s most widely read daily newspapers) that if North Korea launches an ICBM into the “Pacific region,” the United States will “immediately” intercept it. This report was quickly responded to by Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, who warned of a “swift and overwhelming” military response to any action taken by the United States. It is unclear if the reporting in the Chosun Ilbo was a misquote or even a mistranslation. Such a comment has never been made in the past by a senior American official. The...

While President Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed, according to a report. US officials told CNN on Tuesday that Russia used a deconfliction line to notify the US in advance of the missile test, which reportedly did not pose a risk to the country. According to the officials, the US did not view the test as an anomaly or an escalation. The test was of a nuclear-capable heavy SARMAT missile, dubbed Satan II by NATO, and classified as a “superweapon” by the head of Russia’s aerospace research agency. US...

North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile into the sea off Japan's west coast on Saturday afternoon after warning of a strong response to upcoming military drills by South Korea and the United States. "The surprise ICBM launching drill ... is an actual proof of the DPRK strategic nuclear force's consistent efforts to turn its capacity of fatal nuclear counterattack on the hostile forces into the irresistible one," the state news agency KCNA said, using the abbreviation for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The state news agency said the missile had flown for 1 hour,...

The recent advances in North Korea’s ballistic missile test program appear to be directed at developing capabilities to defeat or degrade the effectiveness of missile defenses deployed in the region: Patriot, Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). In addition, North Korea’s progress with submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) suggests an effort to counter land-based THAAD missile defenses by launching attacks from positions at sea outside the THAAD’s radar field of view, although local Aegis BMD systems could likely still track these projectiles. The Pukgugsong-3 SLBM was successfully tested beginning in late 2019. According to a...

Washington -- Nine military officers who had worked decades ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana have been diagnosed with blood cancer and there are “indications” the disease may be linked to their service, according to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. One of the officers has died. All of the officers, known as missileers, were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a vast field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a January briefing by U.S. Space...

Kim Yo-Jong, a top North Korean communist official and sister of dictator Kim Jong-un, published a barely coherent string of insults and threats on Tuesday suggesting that international experts doubting the quality of North Korean weapons may soon prompt an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch across the Pacific Ocean. Kim, officially a vice department director at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party (the ruling communist party), published her statement through the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), one of the few legal media outlets in the country and a government-run propaganda platform. Kim appeared to be responding to the free...

SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Yonhap)--North Korea revealed Kim Jong-un's daughter for the first time Saturday in photos showing them atending the test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) the previous day. The North's state media reported that Kim inspected the launch of the Hwasong-17, the country's largest ballistic missile, at Pyongyang International Airport on Friday. He was present at the scene "together with his beloved daughter and wife," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. Photos released by the agency showed his daughter in a white winter jacket standing and walking, together with Kim in front of the missile sitting...

The latest suspected ICBM was fired at 10:15 local time (02:15 GMT) from near the North Korean capital Pyongyang, military chiefs in Seoul said. It reached an altitude of 6,100km on a lofted trajectory and travelled 1,000km (621 miles), reaching a speed of Mach 22, South Korea's military said. A lofted trajectory means the missile flies much higher into space but across a shorter distance than it would if fired on a normal trajectory. But Japan's defence minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile had sufficient range to reach the US. "Based on calculations taking the trajectory into account, the ballistic...

it's been over 80 years since a major conflict has broken out in europe the 0:06 conflict has broken out in europe the 0:08 result has left many with a deep sense 0:10 of uncertainty nearly 70 percent of 0:12 americans surveyed by the american 0:14 psychological association feared that we 0:16 are at the beginning stages of world war 0:19 iii the prospect of nuclear conflict 0:21 once unthinkable is now a very real 0:23 possibility today we're going to explore 0:25 the unthinkable how would the united 0:27 states respond during a nuclear conflict 0:30 what's america's nuclear...

he Air Force on Tuesday said it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nearly two weeks after postponing the launch amid increased tensions with China over Taiwan. The unarmed Minuteman III, which is capable of holding a nuclear payload, was launched at 12:49 a.m. Pacific Time from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., with its reentry vehicle landing roughly 4,200 miles away near the Marshall Islands, according to a statement from Air Force Global Strike Command. The statement said the test demonstrated U.S. readiness and reliability, as well as the “expertise of our strategic weapons maintenance personnel and of...

The Air Force’s next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile has a new moniker. Known by the clunky name of Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, or GBSD, the weapon system under development has officially been designated as Sentinel. Land-based ICBMs have made up one part of the nation’s nuclear triad for decades. “The name Sentinel recognizes the mindset that thousands of airmen, past and present, have brought to the deterrence mission, and will serve as a reminder for those who operate, secure and maintain this system in the future about the discipline and responsibility their duty entails,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said. The...

The Biden administration confirmed Thursday that North Korea recently conducted two tests of a relatively new intercontinental ballistic missile system, ratcheting up tensions between leader Kim Jong Un and the U.S. at a precarious time in world politics. A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share details of the government’s threat assessment, said the tests were carried out in February and March. North Korea conducted its last ICBM test in November 2017. World leaders first learned of this particular ICBM system, which can carry nuclear weapons, during North Korea’s Workers’ Party parade, which...

India’s recent testing of a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile came on the heels of failed military and diplomatic talks between India and China, as well as reports of a hypersonic missile test by the Chinese regime.But experts told The Epoch Times that India’s test-fire was not a retaliatory response to the regime’s recent actions.Agni-5 CapabilitiesAnimesh Roul, executive director of the New Delhi-based Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict, said this was not the first time India test-fired an Agni-5 surface-to-surface ballistic missile. In 2012, 2013, and 2018, the Agni-5 was tested several times.“However, the Oct. 27 test at...

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – A test launch of an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile Minuteman III failed and the cause is unknown and being investigated, the US Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) said on Wednesday. "An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, experienced a ground abort prior to launch. The cause of the ground abort is currently under investigation, and Air Force Global Strike Command is assessing the potential to reschedule the launch", AFGSC said in a press release. The three-stage land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Minuteman family were originally intended for...

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has assessed that North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) re-entry vehicles are likely to “perform adequately” if flown on a normal trajectory to mainland United States, according to an American think tank report Tuesday. Concurrently, the U.S. Navy intercepted and destroyed an ICBM target using a ship-launched missile over the Pacific Ocean, northeast of Hawaii, announced the Missile Defense Agency Tuesday, part of the Pentagon’s move to build and test a layered missile defense system for the U.S. mainland. The "2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength," an annual report released by the Washington-based Heritage...

Former U.S. Senator Harry Reid repeated claims in a new documentary that UFOs interfered in U.S nuclear weapons facilities – even prohibiting the weapons’ launch altogether. In the documentary “The Phenomenon” that released Tuesday, Reid said, repeating claims told to him, “If they had been called upon by the president to launch [the nukes] they couldn’t have done it.” Reid, who was a prominent figure in forming the Department of Defense’s secret UFO program, said there have been numerous UFO sightings by nuclear launch officers. He did not elaborate on any additional details supporting his claims in the documentary, but...

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 1:13 a.m. Pacific Time Oct. 2, 2019, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract to engineer and manufacture its next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile. (Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. J.T. Armstrong) The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the service's next-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles to replace the aging Minuteman III ICBMs. The service on Tuesday said the contract for the Ground Based...

The land-based leg of the United States’ nuclear triad is the Minuteman III. The Minuteman family has served with distinction as the bedrock of America’s land-based strategic nuclear force since the early 1960s. There are approximately 440 Minutemen currently in the United States’ nuclear arsenal. It is also the United States’ longest-range missile, and tops out at about 13,000 kilometers, or just over 8,000 miles, giving the United States a truly global reach. The missiles are overseen by the U.S. Air Force, with the majority of the missiles about evenly distributed in the United States’ north and west, at missile...