New Nuke Tests and a Dictator’s Sci-Fi Drip
America hasn’t tested its ICBMs in years. It just test launched two of the unarmed nuclear-capable missiles in one week.
The U.S. successfully launched two unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) this week. The ICBMs flew from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and streaked across the sky above the Pacific ocean. "This test launch marks the start of a remarkable week for our Guardians and Airmen at Vandenberg, with two test launches scheduled from the Western Range," Colonel Bryan Titus of Space Force said in a press release about the launches.
"These tests hold immense significance, not only for our nation's defense, but also serve as a pivotal moment in showcasing the exceptional capabilities and expertise of our dedicated team."
It’s been a while since America tested its nuclear-capable missiles. The Pentagon canceled ICBM tests in 2022 following news that Russia had put its own nuclear forces on high alert. “In an effort to demonstrate that we have no intention of engaging in any actions that can be misunderstood or misconstrued, the secretary of defense has directed that our Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile test launch scheduled for this week to be postponed," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said at the time. "We did not take this decision lightly, but instead to demonstrate that we are a responsible nuclear power."
The power of America’s missiles was called into question in 2023 when a test launch failed and Space Force “terminated” the missile.
ICBMs are the most controversial part of America’s nuclear triad—which includes the land-based missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and bombers. The world’s superpowers are rushing to build more and better nuclear weapons and the U.S. is set to spend more than a trillion dollars “modernizing” its nukes. Part of the plan is to replace the Minuteman missiles, which will probably cost hundreds of billions of dollars. ICBMs are the most antiquated part of the triad and both sitting congressmen and experts have argued they’re too dangerous and expensive to keep around.
“We can no longer let momentum alone march us down a $150 billion path that makes our country, and the world, fundamentally less safe,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wa) said in a Newsweek op-ed.
The grim truth of ICMBs is that the silos are constructed in states with lots of land and few people like Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming. Cold War planners believed that the U.S. needed targets for Soviet nukes that wouldn’t mess up the rest of the country’s infrastructure too badly. They called it the “nuclear sponge.”
The people who live in these states are, understandably, not thrilled about Pentagon planners viewing them as disposable. A recent Princeton study estimated that a nuclear strike in the sponge states would cause fallout that would spread across the continent and kill hundreds of millions of people.
The ICBMs are an untenable solution to another nuclear nightmare. Previous to their widespread deployment in the 1960s, America maintained the ability to deploy a nuclear weapon anywhere on the planet at a moment’s notice by blanketing the world in nuclear-equipped bombers under the guidance of Strategic Air Command. For the crew of these bombers, the shifts were long and the stakes were high. Some of the pilots ate speed to keep themselves awake and ready to nuke Soviet troops at a moment’s notice.
There were a lot of accidents and some of the nukes from the era are still missing. The program finally shut down after accidents in Denmark and Spain irradiated vast swaths of land and Spain told the U.S. it could no longer fly in its airspace. SAC’s bombers had already fallen out of favor by the time of the accidents. ICBMS were the future.
They were also part of a hopeful and misguided dream. “The ICBMs were developed early in the Cold War as a way of cutting the growing costs of war — a devastating preventive measure that, in the optimistic minds of President Dwight Eisenhower and those who surrounded him, would eliminate the need to maintain the kind of armies that had just fought World War II and the Korean War,” Emma Claire Foley said in her excellent piece on this week’s tests. “The U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, now much expanded, is still touted as a uniquely effective war preventer by its supporters, despite all the evidence to the contrary.”
That was decades ago and now ICBMs are in the same place bombers were back then. It’s an aging technology that’s expensive to maintain and causes more problems than it solves. Despite that, the ICBMs seem to be sticking around. There’s even another test coming later this year.
“This is the [Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site’s] version of the Super Bowl, and we were ready,” Lieutenant Colonel Casey A. Rumfelt, the site director, said in a press release. “To my knowledge, we have never had back-to-back Glory Trip missions like we had in early June with a follow-on major test that we will conduct later in the month. Make no mistake, the current level of testing is a good sign for the United States and our allies.”