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MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. - At any given moment, Malmstrom
Air Force Base's 15 missile alert facilities represent one-third of
our nation's land-based intercontinental ballistic missile force.
Spread out across a complex that covers 13,800 square miles of
central Montana, these MAFs — or more specifically, the underground
launch control centers that each MAF supports — stand ready to
launch the 341st Missile Wing's force of Minuteman III missiles upon
orders from the president of the United States.
If
communication to these LCCs was ever lost and missile combat crews
on duty couldn't receive emergency action messages vital to national
security, it would impact the nuclear deterrence the wing provides
daily.
The 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron's missile
communications section ensures the equipment needed to transmit and
receive these important messages is in good repair and operating
properly. The 23-person shop regularly dispatches teams to the field
to maintain the communication equipment in the LCCs and at launch
facilities. It also keeps a command post team on 24/7 standby.
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Senior Airman Travis Grimit (left) and Staff Sgt. Donald Hoffman, both from the 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron missile communications section, verify a mass storage unit is operating properly June 10,
2015 at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. Missile communications technicians maintain the nuclear command and control communications systems at each of Malmstrom's 15 launch control centers and the Support Information Network between LCCs and Malmstrom's 150 Minuteman launch facilities. (U.S. Air Force photo by John Turner)
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“The most important systems we work on are NC3 (nuclear
command and control communications) systems,” said Tech.
Sgt. Christopher Burns, assistant noncommissioned officer in
charge of missile communications.
These systems
include ultrahigh frequency and extremely high frequency Milstar satellite systems, and UHF radio
systems in the LCCs. The section also maintains very high
frequency and very low frequency radio systems.
Missile communications stood up its own laboratory last
summer. Technicians now repair components they bring back
from the field, a task that was previously done by the 341st
Maintenance Operation Squadron's electronics laboratory.
This makes missile communications a more self-sufficient
enterprise.
“It gives us better systems knowledge,”
said Senior Airman Travis Grimit, 341st MMXS missile
communications instructor. “If a part is bad in the field,
we bring it back and we're the ones who fix it. We know
what's wrong with it. If you're the same person who
troubleshot it in the field and you know what's wrong with
it, you can help narrow down how to fix it.”
Additionally, the section is completing a maintenance
trainer that replicates the systems in an LCC. These two
resources help technicians become experts with the systems
they are responsible for, and also troubleshoot problems in
the field from base.
Technicians provide diagnostic
support to missile combat crews at the LCCs. Many issues —
restoring communication with a satellite, for example — can
be resolved by telephone. This eliminates unnecessary
dispatches to the field.
“For just one
troubleshooting interaction, we could potentially be saving
our guys a 278-mile round trip and potentially a 16-hour
day,” Burns said.
This could save several thousand
miles of driving through the week, he said. And because at
least two Airmen comprise a dispatch team, the number of man
hours saved each week can be 100 or more, which frees up
technicians for critical maintenance tasks.
“Unfortunately not every problem is solved over the phone,”
Burns said. “That is why we dispatch every day, doing our
job keeping NC3 systems and all other communication systems
in the missile field up to ensure our nuclear mission is
fully capable.”
Missile communications is also
responsible for the Support Information Network that runs
between the LCCs and each launch facility. This network
provides the direct communication between the missile crews
in the capsules and maintenance teams out on site. While the
SIN is an important system comprised of many subsystems,
this network represents only a portion of the missile
communications section's realm.
“It's been a
misunderstanding that what we do as a shop is go out and fix
the SIN lines to the LFs,” Burns said. “That's actually just
a very small part of everything we do. SIN lines is like the
tip of the iceberg because what everybody doesn't see is
actually a lot more than what they know we do.”
Staff
Sgt. Donald Hoffman, 341st MMXS missile communications
critical task supervisor, agrees.
“What they don't
see is that every day we are troubleshooting satellite
systems and radio systems,” he said.
Grimit has been
in the missile communications section for three and half
years, and it is the only job he's had within the missile
maintenance career field.
“I love it here,” he said.
“It's fun solving a problem and fixing it. I like that.”
By John Turner, U.S. Air Force
341st Missile Wing Public
Affairs
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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