The State - News from July 13, 1987

An unarmed Minuteman 3 missile was destroyed over the Pacific Ocean because a problem occurred during a test, the Air Force said. The intercontinental ballistic missile was well downrange from its launching point at Vandenberg Air Force Base when the problem was detected and range safety officers sent a destruct command to the rocket, said Lt. Col. Richard Hill, a base public affairs officer. “A team of Air Force and Department of Defense contractors’ engineers is analyzing data from the flight to isolate the cause of the anomaly,” he said. A Minuteman 3 also failed June 25 and the cause was still being analyzed, Hill said.