U.S. Launches a Minuteman III ICBM from Airborne Launch Control System

We are the world's only airborne missileers, but we're the only ones that get to fly in an airplane and send commands down to the missiles and launch them should the need arise. The test was actually scheduled more than five years ago. The 576 test squadron does a lot of the heavy lifting as far as emplacing the missile and getting ready for the test. 625th staff starts to get involved about six months prior to the mission. It's a lot of mission partners, it's a huge mission, tons of players, and a lot of planning goes into these missions. So glory trips, four times a year, we pull a missile from one of the missile fields, ship it down to Vandenberg Space Force Base, load it up into a launch facility, get it all prepped up and ready to go, and we launch unarmed, not with a live nuclear, with test equipment on board. All of our allies and friends around the world who are covered by the umbrella of nuclear deterrence, they must be shown that our deterrence is capable and ready to launch if needed. This test, it sends a message that our nuclear forces are ready to execute at any given time. We are demonstrating that our weapon system is safe, secure, reliable, and effective by not only showing that it can launch, but that we can launch it with our alternate launch capability. For most of us, this will be the only opportunity that we get to participate in a mission like this where we get to come out to Vandenberg Space Force Base and actually launch an ICBM from the airborne launch control system. And so it really is the pinnacle of our time in the 625th STOS.