According to the US Defense News Weekly website on February 11, the US Air Force Global Strike Command said that it had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile without warhead from California to test the defense system. The Minuteman-3 missile was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base at 11:01 p.m. on the 9th. A statement from the Air Force said that the missile's re-entry vehicle flew about 4200 miles (1.6 kilometers) over the Pacific Ocean and reached the Kwajalin Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The US Air Force said that the test launch was routine. The Air Force statement said: "This test has been carried out more than 300 times before, and this test is not the result of current world events." The Militia-3 missile system has been in service for decades. The Air Force plans to replace it with a new type of "Sentinel" missile. (Outlook New Era)