A joint team of United States Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen and U.S. Space Force Guardians conducted two routine tests of unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in June 2024.
Both launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the tests — named Glory Trip (GT)-249 (June 4) and GT-250 (June 6) — sent the missiles about 6,750 kilometers to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s (USASMDC) Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site (RTS) in the Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll. Each missile was equipped with one re-entry vehicle. The ICBM community, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and U.S. Strategic Command, uses data collected from test launches for force development evaluation.
RTS sensors, including high-fidelity metric and signature radars, as well as optical sensors and telemetry, support the research, development, test and evaluation of the U.S. defense and space programs. RTS provides range instrumentation, ground range safety, meteorological support and data analysis to capture every measurable data opportunity and provide information critical to system performance evaluations.
“The U.S. nuclear enterprise is the cornerstone of security for our allies and partners around the globe,” Col. Chris Cruise, 377th Test and Evaluation Group commander, said in an announcement. “Today’s test launch is just one example of how our nation’s ICBMs, and the professional Airmen who maintain and operate them, demonstrate the readiness and reliability of the weapon system. It showcases our commitment to deterrence as we stand on continuous alert, 24/7/365.”
Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, commanding general of USASMDC, witnessed the first of the two ICBM tests.
“The history and enduring partnership between the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the United States is critical to the peace and stability around the globe in this time of rapidly developing technology,” Cotton said in a statement. “Simply put, the mission of Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site cannot be completed anywhere else on Earth. Having a partnership like this is vital to the deterrence mission.”
RTS is one of the major range and test facility bases supporting the test launches, in the terminal phase of flight for the Air Force and tracks vehicles as they travel toward the target. For GT-249 and GT-250, RTS provided scoring data from when the vehicle impacts into the Kwajalein Missile Impact Scoring System. Lt. Col. Casey A. Rumfelt, RTS range director, said the biggest challenge with such a rapid mission set is the pre- and post-mission work.
“Every mission regardless of the name is doing something a little bit different,” Rumfelt said. “Additionally, the compact timeline doesn’t allow for any response to something unforeseen. What I mean by that is if one test is delayed for any reason it puts the follow-on mission at risk.
“Our planning must take into account all contingencies,” he added. “To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, ‘A failure to plan is planning to fail,’ and it’s certainly true in this case.”