An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Ammo: Building bombs, winning wars

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt, Timothy Boyer
  • 380 Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  A jet sets off for a warzone. The maintainers did their part to make sure it was mission ready. The pilot has done her part, training and staying fit to fly for a mission such as this.  

She spots her target, locks on and prepares to fire, but as she does there are no munitions. Fortunately this scenario is fictional and will never happen, because the Airmen of the 380th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron Ammo Flight work hard to ensure munitions are always ready for the mission.

"You need to have firepower in order to have airpower," said Senior Airman Spenser Cox, 380 EMXS precision-guided munitions crew chief deployed here from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.
   
Ammo builds, maintains, tests and keeps up to date the different munitions that are used here every day, from the start of the munitions to the point during which they leave the flightline.

"A lot of the components are preset before they leave ammo," Cox explained. "We set what they do when they drop. If someone was to miss a step in a technical order, it may not go wrong here, but when they hook it to the aircraft and the pilot drops it and it goes off too early or late, it can have a big impact on the mission. That's why we work so hard to make sure our job is done right."

Ammo Airmen not only have to know and understand the aircraft currently here, they must be ready and able to adjust munitions for a variety of aircraft in the area of responsibility. 

"We have to be ready, at a moment's notice, to supply the munitions that are needed for any given aircraft," explained Staff Sgt. Lane Short, 380 EMXS munitions systems specialist deployed from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, which also happens to be his hometown. "There are multiple munitions we may have to build, so we train to make sure we know how to build them."

The capability to build munitions for nearly any aircraft in the AOR comes with the inherent risks. 

"At home, 90 percent of what we work with are inert or training munitions," Cox, the Reno, Nev., native said. "Here, it's just the opposite. The majority of what we handle is live."

"There's always going to be danger dealing with explosives," Short added. "But we work with professionals, pay attention to detail, follow the technical orders very strictly and watch each other's backs to minimize the risk as much as possible."

Pilots can fly them, maintainers can keep them mission ready, but even the newest and nicest fighters cannot be truly effective without munitions. 

"Ammo makes the difference," Short said. "A lot of people see the end result - conflicts or wars ending - but the guys handling these bombs and missiles are the ones making the difference with our attention to detail, professionalism and the long hours we put in to make sure the job is done right. It takes a team to use them, but it's our bombs and munitions that win wars."