Vandenberg Space Force Base could set a new launch record in the near future.
Col. James Horne, the commander of Space Launch Delta 30 and the base’s Western Launch and Test Range, told attendees at the annual State of Vandenberg event held Thursday on base that he believes in the next five to 10 years, launch rates will double or potentially even triple.
The record for launches from Vandenberg for a single year is 123, set in 1967.
Col. Horne says he is expecting to break that soon.
Three to four of the base’s launches every year are tests of unarmed intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Related: Unarmed ICBM takes off from Vandenberg Space Force Base
While these test launches are nothing new at Vandenberg, Col. Dustin D. Harmon explained they still come with some challenges.
"On one hand, a weapon that you've been testing for a long time, you kind of get into a rhythm and you understand what used to happen. On the other hand, the weapon system gets a vote, and so as it ages, we find things that we didn't expect. Some things that last a lot longer than we thought they would, sometimes last less time than we think they would, so trying to do the predictive analysis gets a lot more challenging," Col. Harmon said.
The event also highlighted a growing need for housing, the Sentinel program, which will replace Minuteman IIIs, an increasing number of trained civilian guardians through Delta 1, which handles Basic Military Training, the use of the base’s airfield from commercial company Stratolaunch for hypersonic vehicle landings, and F-15 fighter jets, which were heard in the area Wednesday and will return at times getting used to Vandenberg operations.
