The 3d MUNS arm JBER Raptors

  • Published
  • By Johnathon Green
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  When it comes to things that go BOOM for the Air Force at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, it is the men and women of the 3d Munitions Squadron who keep the munitions safely silent until ready.

Originally under the 3d Equipment Maintenance Squadron as two flights - an Armament Flight and a Munitions Flight - the 3d MUNS had yet to be born. On July 26, 2011, the 3d MUNS came to life. Not just as two flights as it had, but four flights: Production Flight, Materiel Flight, Systems Flight and Armament Flight. Working together as a cohesive unit, these Airmen store, build, move and maintain the explosive power our Air Force has here on base.

"Production Flight is just what it says. They put stuff together, build bombs, maintain missiles and service trailers," explained Air Force Capt. Joshua Trebon, 3d MUNS maintenance operations officer. "Materiel Flight is stockpile management. They store the explosive assets, conduct inspection cycles and ensure the utmost reliability of the 3d Wing's stockpile. They keep the accountability of said assets and manage the Combat Ammunition System; our worldwide munitions tracking database.

"Systems Flight is the C2 Node (command and control systems) of the squadron; they control all the munitions movements, liaison with the flight line, manage our training and keep mobility functional," Trebon said. "If we get a deployment order, our mobility Airmen are getting to build, stage and palletize equipment; getting it ready to roll to the C-17 [Globemaster III] to head out to wherever the nation needs us.

"Armament Flight maintains the equipment that our munitions are connected to on the aircraft. They handle all the racks, guns, pylons, etc., that our munitions are loaded into, making the 3d Wing's F-22 Raptor fleet lethal."

The space necessary to do what the 3d MUNS does every day is enormous. To store and maintain all the munitions takes up 88 acres of land on JBER. Everything is widely spread out from each other - and wisely so when it comes to items, which can
explode.

The most distant and secluded are the munitions bunkers overseen by the Materiel Flight. These are fondly referred to as igloos. Just one igloo, which was not even close to being full, contained more than 60,000 pounds of net explosive weight (TNT equivalent) of munitions and there are many igloos in secured and isolated areas. Even though these igloos are storage for munitions, they need to be monitored and checked.

"Right now I am running the operations as a crew chief," said Airman 1st Class Abraham Camacho, crew chief of the Materiel Flight. "Yes, even as an airman first class, I run the inventory for a bunch of munitions and we also inspect their service ability as a pool every morning."

"I look over everyone that you just talked to [on this crew]," said Air Force Staff Sgt. Derek DeVos, 3d MUNS munitions storage crew chief and noncommissioned officer in charge for their shipping and receiving in Material Flight. "I make sure that everything is getting done safely. That is our big thing out here. Safety is key."

When the request for munitions comes down from 3d Wing headquarters, Airmen cannot just simply gather the requested munitions, put them in the back of a truck and drive to the flight line. This movement of munitions falls to Systems Flight.

A munition must be sourced, delivered to an explosive operation build site, then dispatched and delivered to the end user. Every single movement of any munition is carefully tracked and monitored by Munitions Control.

In this room, three Airmen monitor all movements of munitions. Their tools consist of telephones, radios, white boards and a program called Combat Ammunitions System. Through the use of these tools, they can monitor and track every single part of a munition asset from storage, to production, to the delivery, to the flight line, which will ensure the jets meet their take off time.

"We monitor everything that goes on in the munitions area, work orders, personnel status, everything like that, making sure that it all fits together," said Tech. Sgt. Kyle Cooley, senior controller in Systems Flight. "So, with all the different sections of the munitions area, each part needs to fit together and we are here to make sure those parts fit and work smoothly."

All the equipment that is used to confirm the marriage of munitions to an aircraft and the maintenance of weapons on an aircraft falls to the Armament Flight.

"We maintain about 400 different pieces of alternate mission equipment," said Senior Master Sgt. Larry Ferris, Armament Flight chief. "It is the AME that an aircraft uses to configure it for different missions: air-to-air, air-to-ground and other capabilities."

For bombs, they have three different types of racks, the Bomb Rack Unit-46, the BRU-47 and the BRU-61, the newest rack design. These two racks, the BRU-46 and 47, can be used to accommodate different munitions mission configurations.

"We are the first F-22 units to be able to bring these [the BRU-61's] online in conjunction with the Small Diameter Bomb," said Air Force Maj. Jerrod Duggan, commander of the 3d MUNS.

The BRU-61 with the SDBs connected was successfully tested during an exercise called Combat Hammer in October 2012.

To transport and load ammunition onto an aircraft, they use a Universal Ammunition Loading System. An F-22 has an M-61A2 Vulcan 20-mm canon. To fully load this weapon's magazine with 20-mm shells takes the UALS 15 to 20 minutes.

When the fighters require ammunition, it needs to be designed, built, monitored and maintained. So when it comes time to put bombs and missiles together and the maintenance of these munitions and equipment, the Production Flight is called in.
There are quite a few munitions that the Production Flight monitors.

"Here, in Conventional Munitions Maintenance, we deal with counter measures, 20-mm ammunition, weapons systems for our airframes, SDB's and the Joint Direct Attack Munition or JDAM bombs," said Tech. Sgt. William Mann, assistant noncommissioned officer in charge in Production Flight.

"What we are doing here is a specific inspection of our [Captive Air Training Missile] AIM-9m missiles," said Air Force Staff Sgt. Paul Leprohon, Precision Guided Munitions Crew Chief in Production Flight. "These missiles have come back for a 20-flight inspection, which is where an F-22 has flown these missiles 20 times and we do an overall inspection to make sure they're still serviceable and ready for use."

For all the pieces of equipment and tools used in the 3d MUNS to move, inspect and maintain, the most important piece of equipment they use to do their job, and do it safely, are trailers. It is the trailer that safely moves all munitions from Point A to Point B.

"If you have a bad trailer, you're towing it, and say a wheel falls off, and you have a bunch of explosives on that trailer; what do you think is going to happen?" said Senior Airman Geoff George, Precision Guided Munitions Crew Chief in Production Flight. "They are going to fall off. Somebody could get hurt; somebody could blow up, anything like that. Our handling units [trailers] all have to be in tip-top shape as well as our munitions."
Trebon detailed how all of 3d MUNS' flights come together to support the munitions requirements for JBER's F-22s.

"They are really a unique bunch of Airmen," he said. "They are very hard working and dedicated, but a bit misunderstood as to what goes into putting bombs on target. A lot of people do not realize how much work happens behind the fence and what those 270 bodies do day in and day out to prep munitions, prep aircraft, prep bombs and racks to make those airplanes more than just airliners."