Yep, being the 2nd test in 9 days can’t be an accident. And ours don’t just fire off in a random direction like Lil Kim’s, ours actually hit something.
There’s a video on YouTube that I can’t find anymore, but it’s interesting. It’s multiple warheads hitting at Kwajalein Test Range. The camera has a field of view of about 300 feet and every reentry vehicle hits dead-center in the camera view. All Kim can do is lob them in some general direction. It wouldn’t surprise me if DoD ran across it, declared it classified, and had it pulled.
I was directly involved with either launching or maintaining ICBM's from 1976 to 1992. These launches are called Follow On Test & Evaluation launches, FOT&E (pronounced, Foot).
The planning for these launches start years in advance and the launch dates are set a year or more prior to the launch. The logistics involved is enormous and also the money to perform the shot has to be planned long before.
The missiles that are launched are actually sitting in their operational Launch Facilities (LF) at the operational bases and are randomly picked by higher headquarters for the test long before the launch date.
The scheduling at the Wing level then begins as maintenance crews and equipment must be allocated to go out to the LF and remove the Reentry System (RS) and the missile. They must then, always on the same day, place a new missile and new RS in the LF. The Missile Combat Crew, residing in the underground Launch Control Center (LCC) that is miles away then tests and runs calibrations on the new missile and guidance computer then they declare the new missile "on Alert."
The missile, guidance system, and the RS that was pulled is then shipped out to Vandenberg AFB, CA in preparation for the test. The RS is shipped without the actual reentry vehicle and a dummy reentry vehicle, with telemetry, is installed once it is out at Vandenberg AFB.
All this happens about 1.5 months prior to the launch date.
About one month prior to the launch date three select missile launch crews and one maintenance team from each shop that is needed to get the missile installed and running will head out to Vandenberg AFB. They will then install the missile in the test LF, bring the test LCC up and running, and then start the process of running the standard guidance test and calibrations, then let the guidance system run for about three weeks to let it settle in and simulate an operational environment.
At the specified time of launch the missile crews will run the launch checklist and launch the missile.
The whole operation is planned years in advance. Vandenberg AFB does not have Minuteman III missiles in storage, nor does it have the personnel to maintain and operate the missiles. Vandenberg is there for the testing and has the equipment necessary for the operational Wings to use for the planned tests.
I was honored to have been selected to launch a Minuteman III ICBM and was a part of the FOT&E program, and for the record, all three of the RV's on my missile were scored as direct hits, one RV impacting 20 feet from our designated ground zero.