Global Strike Command Launches Minuteman ICBM Test

Air Force Global Strike Command tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile early May 20, launching the ICBM from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.

Officials said the test, the second of 2026, was scheduled years ago and is not in response to any world events.

The Air Force conducts two to three Minuteman tests every year to ensure its ICBM fleet and forces are prepared. AFGSC boss Gen. S.L. Davis said this latest launch “verifies the health and readiness of our ICBM force, confirming the capability of every component of the ICBM enterprise, from our operators to the weapon system itself, to execute the mission.”

Such tests are dubbed “Glory Trips.” Glory Trip 256 launched from Vandenberg at 12:01 a.m. May 20, almost exactly a year since Glory Trip 253 on May 21, 2025. Other tests took place in November 2025 and March 2026. Air & Space Forces Magazine was granted exclusive access to observe a test in November 2024.

Compared to previous tests, the Air Force released few details on GT-256. Usually, the service notes that the test reentry vehicles on the missile travel 4,200 miles to hit targets in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, at the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. Previous announcements have also noted the number of test reentry vehicles, units involved, and sometimes the launch control system used.

The May 20 release noted the involvement of the 377th Test and Evaluation Group and its 576th Flight Test Squadron but included no information on the test reentry vehicles.

“The test itself is heavily supported by maintenance and operations crews who treat the event as a high-fidelity rehearsal of their daily procedures, validating their training against operational execution,” the release states.

The Air Force will continue to test and maintain the Minuteman III fleet for years to come. The new Sentinel ICBM is scheduled to go operational starting in the early 2030s, but it will take time to build that fleet to the required 400 operational missiles, and the Minuteman will have to keep going until that transition is complete.

To that end, the service detailed plans in its 2027 budget request to spend nearly $86.5 billion on Minuteman modifications and research and development, plus nearly $198 million modernizing the fuzes that go on the Mk21 reentry vehicles. Even more funding is forecasted for 2028: almost $558 million for the Minuteman missile and $152 million for fuze modernization.