The State - News from Aug. 1, 1986

An unarmed Minuteman III missile made a successful test flight to a South Pacific target, after the launch command was radioed from an airplane, officials said. The intercontinental ballistic missile was launched at 5:40 a.m. from an underground silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base. After a 30-minute flight, the missile’s unarmed warheads hit their targets in the South Pacific, 4,200 miles from the launch site, said Col. Michael R. Boldrick, base spokesman. “It was in a normal missile silo, and we have a capability to launch Minuteman from the air,” Boldrick said. “It’s really a backup capability to a ground crew,” he said, explaining that the missile normally is launched by a crew in an underground bunker a few miles from the silo. The launches are intended to test the missile’s readiness and accuracy and to train launch crews.