BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Airmen and Sailors with the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; 576th Flight Test Squadron, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California; 91st Missile Wing, Minot AFB, North Dakota.; and the Navy’s Strategic Communications Wing 1, Offutt AFB, completed a simulated electronic launch minuteman (SELM) test at Offutt AFB on Sept. 17.
Twice a year, SELM tests the Minuteman III in its deployed environment at various missile wings without an actual launch occurring.
“SELM tests the selected ICBMs from day-to-day operation to issuance of the first stage ignition signal,” said Maj. Raun Carnley, assistant director of operations, 625th STOS. “Commands up to and including launch commands are sent to the test configured launch facility from test configured launch control centers and the Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS) onboard a Navy E-6 Mercury.”
SELM tests are vital to the health of the ICBM fleet as it ensures the system will do what it is commanded to do if needed and provides sustainment data to Air Force Global Strike Command and U.S. Strategic Command.
“As updates to software and hardware are fielded, testing helps verify the system continues to work as designed,” Carnley. said “A SELM test validates the combat capability of our fielded ICBM weapon system … while saving the taxpayer money, and without the risk of escalatory messaging that the equivalent number of operational test launches would require to accomplish the same task.”
From the 576th FTS running the tests to the 91st MW providing ground operations and maintenance support to SCW-1 providing the aircraft and aircrew, each organization plays a pivotal role to ensure the launch process is reliable and ready.
A major player in a SELM test is the 625th STOS. The squadron is aligned under the 8th Air Force and provides the targeting package on the missile, systems that simulate the flight of the projectile, launch track and range safety coordinates, training to prepare the team, and ALCS operators who provide the key turn.
“We ensure the ALCS is able to fulfill its role as the backup to the launch control centers and ground crews in the case it is ever needed,” Carnley said.
With so many moving parts, scheduling these tests doesn’t occur overnight. They are planned out years in advance.
“We are currently on a five-year construct,” Carnley said. “Specific preparations on the side of the 625th STOS start approximately four months in advance to coordinate our pieces of the mission. With two tests a year, as soon as one is complete, planning and preparation for the next one begins.”
Although a SELM test isn’t as visible as an operational test launch, it provides a great deal of value to the various organizations supporting the mission.
One such supporting organization is the Joint-Nuclear Operations Center (JNOC) at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.
The JNOC has six divisions. The ICBM division monitors and observes each SELM test and assists as necessary, said Senior Master Sgt. Matthew Tobey, JNOC senior enlisted leader.
“Ensuring the sustainment and capabilities of our nuclear forces not only allows U.S. citizens to sleep soundly at night but provides global stability which also helps foster economic prosperity,” Carnley said. “It’s also a message to our allies and adversaries: The ICBM leg of the nuclear triad is viable and ready at a moment’s notice to defend our freedoms and those of our Allies.”