VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — An unarmed missile capable of sending a nuclear bomb across the world was launched Wednesday from California amid rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. The unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile blasted off from a silo at 12:02 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base and delivered a single re-entry vehicle to a target approximately 4,200 miles away at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the Air Force Global Strike Command said. The test, which took 10 months to plan, was the latest designed to check the readiness and accuracy of a weapon system that forms part of the U.S. nuclear force. Both come at a time when the U.S. has expressed concern about North Korea’s nuclear capability. Fresh missile tests by the North and its progress toward developing a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States have made the isolated communist dictatorship one of America’s top national security concerns.

Source: National Post May 03, 2017 16:52 UTC