The United States Air Force has scheduled a launch of a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile for the early morning hours of October 21. This will be the fifth test of a Minuteman III ICBM in 2015. The target of the missile is the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, over 4,000 miles away.
There is currently a lawsuit pending at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco related to US breaches of international law, which require good faith negotiations for an end to the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament. The lawsuit was filed by the Republic of the Marshall Islands in April 2014. A reply brief by the United States is due in the lawsuit on October 28, just one week after this nuclear missile is launched.
Rick Wayman, Director of Programs at the Santa Barbara-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, criticized the US for its continued reliance on nuclear weapons. He said, “While the U.S. government seeks to wiggle out of the Nuclear Zero Lawsuit in a reply brief due next week, we can all read the government’s true response in this Minuteman III launch.”
This week at the United Nations, the UN General Assembly’s First Committee is meeting to discuss nuclear disarmament. While diplomats are gathered in New York for these important events, the United States is practicing using its land-based nuclear missiles. Each Minuteman III missile carries a nuclear warhead capable of killing hundreds of thousands of people instantly.
David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said, “This is the fifth ICBM launch this year. Each launch sends the same message: that the US can hit targets on the other side of the world with its nuclear weapons. No one doubts that. What is doubted in the world community is that the US is serious about fulfilling its obligations to negotiate in good faith for nuclear disarmament.”
