Barksdale Airmen ensure nuclear safety

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Allison M. Boehm
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  More than 200 Airmen from Air Force Global Strike Command's the 2nd Bomb Wing completed a Nuclear Surety Exercise Sept. 20-24.

An NSE is an exercise used to prepare the base for higher headquarters inspections.

According to Captain. Alexander Christy, 2nd BW IGI, "Barksdale's rigorous NSE program is a tool that provides the 2nd BW commander the capability to test wing organizations' abilities to comply with stringent nuclear surety standards during execution of our nuclear mission."

Air Force officials require the highest possible standards of individual Airmen performing duties associated with the safety, surety and reliability of strategic weapons, and according to Lt. Col. Thomas Aranda, 2nd Bomb Wing XP, periodic exercises and inspections help ensure Barksdale Airmen are in compliance.

"This exercise provides our Airmen valuable training opportunities and allows us to discover small problems before they become big problems," said Colonel Aranda. "By conducting this training, we are ensuring that the 2nd BW is ready to conduct our nation's business.

"This is a valuable opportunity for our Airmen to practice their nuclear skills. The nuclear business is very technical and allows for zero margin of error. Airmen need to be at the top of their game to provide safe, secure and effective nuclear capabilities to our nation. The second purpose is to provide a thorough and honest self-evaluation our nuclear surety."

This NSE's scenarios were built to give Airmen a realistic training environment.

The recent NSE Scenarios included aircraft generation security, establishment of Protection Level-1 security areas, denial of access to Protection Level-1 assets, and recapture and recovery actions.

According to Colonel Aranda, these exercises are intentionally made more challenging and exacting than what we expect during an inspection. "We would much rather discover our own problems and handle them "inside the family" than to have an outside agency discover problems for us," he said.

Even though the exercise was built to be challenging, Barksdale Airmen excelled.

"The best Airmen in the world work at the 2nd Bomb Wing," said Colonel Aranda. "They continue to perform this critical mission with dedication, integrity and excellence. This type of exercise is very important to Barksdale and the Air Force."

According to Wing XP/IGI, the NSE's schedule is based on what the 2nd BW commander believes is needed for the wing to accomplish its mission to prepare for future inspections and nuclear deterrent readiness.