Air Force successfully tests reentry vehicle for new Sentinel ICBM

An unarmed reentry vehicle designed for the next generation of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles has been successfully launched. An unarmed reentry vehicle designed for the next generation of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles was successfully launched last week from Vandenberg Space Force Base. (Lockheed Martin) An unarmed reentry vehicle designed for the next generation of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles was successfully launched last week from Vandenberg Space Force Base, the Pentagon said. A Northrop Grumman Minotaur I missile was used to lift the Mk21A reentry vehicle off the launch pad at the base on the Central California coast near Lompoc. The Air Force did not say where the reentry vehicle came down at the end of the flight.

“The Mk21A is crucial to modernizing our ICBMs in response to the rapidly changing global threat picture posed by our adversaries,” said Maj. Gen. William Rogers, Air Force portfolio acquisition executive for ICBMs. The reentry vehicle is a cone-shaped chamber holding the nuclear warhead that sits atop the three-stage solid-fuel missile. It separates from the boosters during reentry from space and hits or explodes above the target at the end of its flight. The Mk21A reentry vehicle will be used on the future LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM system under development to replace the current Cold War-era LGM-30G Minuteman III missile. The Air Force says