US successfully tests ICBM defense system

 

The US military said Tuesday it had intercepted a mock-up of an intercontinental ballistic missile in a first-of-its-kind test that comes amid concerns over North Korea’s weapons program.

A ground-based interceptor launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California “successfully intercepted an intercontinental ballistic missile target” fired from the Reagan Test Site in the Marshall Islands, the military said in a statement.

Air Force Flight Tests Nuclear ICBM

The Minuteman III came into service in 1970. The last nuclear weapon deployed was roughly in the early 90’s and most of America’s deterrent on land still runs on floppy-disc technology. Meanwhile, Russia and China are significantly modernizing their nuclear forces while increasing them in number.

 

Minuteman III warhead hits 4,200 miles away in Pacific

The U.S. military carried out a flight test of a nuclear-capable Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, the Air Force Strike Command said in a statement.

The missile was launched from F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and its inert warhead flew 4,200 miles to an impact zone near Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean’s Marshall Islands.

Here’s Why Iran’s Seizure of a Cargo Ship Is So Odd, and Disturbing

So far, nothing terribly unusual. The IRGCN, assigned to patrol the Gulf, routinely sends boats to shadow — some call it “harass” — vessels of other nationalities as they transit the strait. Just three days ago, CNN reported, four IRGCN boats surrounded the U.S.-flagged Maersk Kensington in the Strait of Hormuz and followed it closely for some time. The U.S. Fifth Fleet subsequently issued a notice to mariners.What happened next to the MV Maersk Tigris, however, was quite out of the ordinary.

“The master was contacted and directed to proceed further into Iranian territorial waters,” said Warren. “He declined and one of the IRGCN craft fired shots across the bridge of the Maersk Tigris. The master complied with the Iranian demand and proceeded into Iranian waters in the vicinity of Larak Island.”

PLA wants dominance in Western Pacific: US experts

China is increasing the frequency of its naval exercises with the aim of contesting the Second Island Chain in the Pacific — a series of island groups that runs north to south from the Japanese archipelago to the Bonin and Marshall islands — and taking control of the Taiwan Strait, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Just two months after the largest naval exercise in the country’s history, the People’s Liberation Army Navy has again deployed vessels to the West Pacific for more sea drills.

U.S. missile defense system achieves 80 percent hit rate in major test

U.S. military platforms successfully intercepted four out of five missiles in a test in the Pacific Ocean on Oct. 24.

It was “the largest, most complex test of the nation’s ballistic missile defense system,” the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency said.