[Talisker]

The supposed missile you are talking about never exhibited any characteristics remotely similar to last night's display.

I'm talking about last night's display being fired from a Chinese or Russian sub, versus an American one. But the TYPE of missile would be the same.

[pfflier]

Not likely. Both the Air Force and the Navy do periodic fleetwide Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) launches of this nature. So it is not at all unusual.

Both the USAF and the Navy share the Western Test Range which have launches between Vandenberg AFB at Lompoc Ca and Point Mugu respectively usually with the Re Entry Vehicles (RVs) terminating at Kwajalein atoll.

This one was just really photogenic. If it happened during the day there would have been much less publicity.