Making sure they are ready, if need be.
Via NY Post:
The US successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from California early Wednesday to show the military is “ready” and “able” to deter attacks – just days after North Korea test-fired a rocket that could reach the American mainland.
An Air Force statement said the firing wasn’t in response to the reclusive regime’s mounting military provocations, but to show that the US “is safe, secure, effective and ready to be able to deter, detect and defend against attacks on the United States and its allies.”
The unarmed Minuteman 3 missile was launched at 2:10 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base just south of Los Angeles and traveled about 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.