Why aren’t we testing these just off the coast of North Korea? Great practice and when it works, a nice message.
Minuteman III. Beautiful weapon. I had the pleasure of working on them in the 80’s.
North Korea will be watching. I hope they send it on a trajectory that shows them we could actually reach them anytime we like. :)
Because the Minuteman III is a silo launched missile system based in the US great plains. It is not mobile and cannot be moved around for tactical show.
Selected missiles are picked from the fleet receive inert warheads and are moved to Vandenberg AFB California where they are placed in identical configuration silos for the test launches. These launches are instrumented for test and evaluation in the Western Test Range based at Kwajalein.
I did the operational test and launch part for some of my nine years in the USAF.