Missile Launch?

Wouldn't surprise me. Nothing says FU quite like a boomer launching an ICBM.

According to the official story Kentucky was long in the tooth and just got some major updates/refit and the test was SOP.

 

Don- The shroud over the reentry vehicles is blown when q (air loads) gets low enough. The entire precision deployment vehicle then continues on a ballistic course with small corrections until it reaches release point for the first RV. The platform precision points for each RV release to ballistically impact on its individual target. Accuracy is outstanding considering the RVs are unguided.

 

I didn't mean how accurate the missile was (I just assumed it was pretty darned good), I meant how accurate the photo interpretations in the link were.

 

Don- With a good enough camera, you probably could see the precision dispense vehicle and the RVs. Range cameras we work with are high enough resolution to see that kind of detail if atmospheric conditions are good.

The reason I told the story was to confirm that yes, the shroud is blown relatively early and relatively close to the launch location. In this case, that image was probably taken from a downrange ship's tracking camera.