JBER builds bombs to sharpen combat readiness

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF)— While many hands are involved in ensuring the Air Force has combat-capable aircraft, the units involved with those operations don’t always utilize all of their skills day in and day out.

The 3rd Munitions Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) is just one of those units. Tasked with assembling munitions such as bombs, missiles, and cartridges for the aircraft at JBER, the unit works with a wide array of munitions.

“Bomb-building is not something we do often,” said 2nd Lt. Christine Shank, materiel flight commander, in a press release.

In an effort to utilize and strengthen those skills, the 3rd Munitions Squadron conducted a bomb-building exercise on Mar. 4.

“These exercises are important because we need to test our abilities to support the mission,” Shank stated in the press release.

The exercise involved testing a new building and materials necessary to construct and store munitions. The new structure they worked in was designed and built for the intended purpose of building bombs in the harsh Alaskan winter.

“It’s our only operating location that is sited and covered in the event that we need to fulfill a tasking in cold weather conditions,” Shank explained.

Previously the unit “had a tent in this location and that used as our operating location for building munitions like we are now in the winter and it had collapsed due to snow,” she said.

The exercise at the new location allowed the squadron to ensure they had the ability to support the mission of any aircraft year round.

“Our big mission here is to be always ready and always lethal, and that’s what we’re testing here by building lethal capable bombs as well as shipping out missiles to provide that capability,” said 2nd Lt. Evan Schwarz.

Something that is vital to operations at JBER is that it has one of the largest missile caches in the Pacific Air Forces, commonly called PACAF, according to Shank.

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