Missile Test Fails

Air Force Global Strike Command says an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile had to be destroyed -- minutes after it blasted out of an underground silo on the California coast on a test flight. The Minuteman III missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base just after 3 o'clock this morning California time -- 5 o'clock our time -- and it was destroyed five minutes later because of safety concerns. Air Force Col. Matthew Carroll says Western Range controllers detected what is being called ``a flight anomaly.'' There are no details on exactly what went wrong. The Air Force says the missile was nearing its target in the Pacific Ocean's Kwajalein Atoll area when it was destroyed. The military regularly tests unarmed ICBMs to test the weapon system's reliability.