The U.S. military frequently tests the Minuteman reliability and accuracy with regularly scheduled launches over the Pacific Ocean. They launch from Vandenberg Air Force base in Southern California and fly 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands.
The Air Force said that an anomaly is any unexpected event that takes place during a missile test.
399 Minuteman Missiles
The current American force consists of 399 Minuteman III missiles as of September 2017. The missiles are deployed in missile silos in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming. The system is a component of the U.S. nuclear triad, with the other two parts of the triad being nuclear weapons carried by long-range strategic bombers and Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles.“This multi-faceted approach effectively diversifies the risk involved with a potential first-strike nuclear attack—and increases the ability of an offensive second-strike attack. While the government remains confident in the reliability of the triad as a nuclear deterrent, new dialogue has been established regarding the relevance and feasibility of maintaining specific legs of the triad in the 21st century,” reads a synopsis on the university’s website.