The new combined Space and Missile Operations Badge was informally known as 'spings' (SPace wINGS). In 2004, the Air Force Space Command Commander, General Lance Lord, announced the introduction of a new space badge. The same year, SAC was inactivated and its ICBM force briefly transferred to the newly created Air Combat Command (ACC) before being transferred again to the Air Force Space Command ( AFSPC). In the late 1980s, this badge was redesignated as the missile maintenance insignia while a new version bracketed by an oak wreath became the missile operations badge.īy 1992, all USAF tactical missiles were retired or in the process of being retired. The badge, at all 3 levels, was also awarded to Air Defense Command personnel maintaining and on launch crews of both the BOMARC A/B and the Thor in the 1960s and 1970s.

Although primarily issued to Atlas, Titan I/ Titan II, Minuteman I/II/III and Peacekeeper missile crews of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), it was also issued to Tactical Air Command (TAC) Matador and Mace missile crews of the 1960s and Gryphon Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) crews of the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1963 the name was changed to the Missileman Badge and the three levels of Basic, Senior and Master were added. Originally known as the Missileman Badge, the Missile Badge later became known as the Missileer Badge or more informally the Pocket Rocket and is still often referred to by this name.įollowing its creation in 1958, the badge came in only one style. The 'pocket rocket' badge recognizes those commissioned officers and enlisted personnel of the US Air Force who have qualified as missile personnel (both TAC and SAC (now AFGSC)) that have been trained in the maintenance or launching of land-based and air-launched nuclear weapons under the direction of the National Command Authority. The Missile Badge is a military decoration of the United States Air Force which was first created on. JSTOR ( September 2007) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. The state-of-the-art facility is dedicated to testing operations in support of nuclear hardness and survivability for the Boeing-built Minuteman weapon system and other priority Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DoE) programs, military systems and aerospace products.This article needs additional citations for verification.

In addition, the center is also home to assembly, integration and test activities for several Boeing production programs, including the KC-46 Tanker, T-7A Red Hawk and the MQ-25 unmanned aircraft system.īoeing operates and maintains the Little Mountain Test Facility for the Air Force at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and has supported operations at the site – including radiation effects, electromagnetic effects, shock and vibration, and other environmental testing – for more than 45 years.

The Boeing Guidance Repair Center in Heath, Ohio, is responsible for maintaining the readiness and modernization of guidance and navigation systems for our Nation’s nuclear-capable platforms, as well as non-nuclear capable guidance and control systems, electronics and radio frequency systems, and platform processors.

Nuclear silo maintenance