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AFSC 21B4, Staff
AFSC 21B3, Qualified
AFSC 21B1, Entry

Specialty Summary. Leads, trains, and equips personnel supporting aerospace equipment sustainment, operations, conventional munitions, nuclear weapons, and missile maintenance. Manages maintenance and modification of aircraft, munitions, missiles, and associated equipment. Administers aircraft and weapons maintenance programs and resources. Directs aircraft maintenance and weapons production, staff activity, and related materiel programs. Manages missile maintenance activities at launch and missile alert facilities, including maintenance, repair, and inspection of missile flight systems, expendable launch vehicles (ELV), nuclear certified support vehicles and equipment, and associated ground support equipment (SE). Assesses unit capability and advises senior leadership. Related DoD Occupational Groups: 4D and 4E.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Directs aircraft, munitions, and missile maintenance operations activities in garrison and deployed locations. Formulates maintenance procedures for all munitions and missile systems. Maintains workforce discipline and responds to personnel issues while balancing workforce availability and skill levels with operational requirements. Works with functional managers to develop, formulate, and manage fiscal resources. Instills maintenance discipline, security awareness and force protection concepts. Ensures accuracy of documentation in aircraft forms and automated systems. Ensures adherence to technical data, policy, procedures, and safe maintenance practices.

Develops, coordinates, and executes flying and maintenance schedules. Manages aircraft configuration; daily aircraft servicing, weapons loading, launch, recovery, and repair; periodic aircraft maintenance inspections; and flightline safety and foreign object damage (FOD) prevention and dropped object programs. Manages overall aircraft fleet health and ensures aircraft availability to execute mission requirements. Analyzes aircraft maintenance indicators to identify trends and initiates corrective actions. Advises commanders on risks associated with conventional munitions, nuclear weapons, and missile operations. Evaluates explosives and nuclear safety criteria and develops explosives site plans for storage, movement, and operations of conventional munitions, nuclear weapons, and missiles. Conducts conventional munitions, nuclear weapons, and missile safety training.

Directs maintenance activities that may include aircraft propulsion, pneudraulics, egress, fuel systems, electro-environmental, avionic systems, conventional munitions, nuclear weapons, and missile maintenance production. Also may include management of aerospace ground equipment, structural repair, corrosion control, survival equipment, machine, welding, inspection, aero-repair, non-destructive inspection, and off-equipment munitions and armament suspension equipment.

Manages quality assurance, maintenance training, budget and resource management, analysis, facilities, shared resources to include end-of-runway and weapons load training. Manages plans and programs, modifications, and modernizations requirements.

Formulates maintenance plans and policies to meet unit tasking. Assesses unit maintenance capability in support of combat related operational plans and provides inputs for capability assessments for each plan. Defines aircraft maintenance and weapons procedures and requirements in response to emergency or contingency situations. Plans and directs munitions support for in-place and Air Expeditionary Force operations.

Coordinates key core logistics requirements supporting aircraft maintenance and weapons operations. Establishes support requirements for supply requisition, repair cycle, delivery, combat support, ground and aerial port transportation, base support plans, and munitions requirements.

Directs and manages depot maintenance activities to encompass wholesale logistics life cycle sustainment support. Coordinates production schedules to include induction and selling systems. Manages combat logistics support squadrons (CLSS) workloads and personnel. Defines technical problems and economic factors related to research and development, and system operational data to evaluate programs, assess trends, and identify improvements and deficiencies. Manages weapons system programs, the bargaining unit workforce, funding of depot maintenance workloads, and transportation distribution systems. Manages logistics tests and evaluation on new acquisition programs and aircraft modifications. Manages and coordinates activities to support intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch readiness operations. Advises commander on operational status of ICBM assets. Develops flight plans and supports ground flight software and hardware configuration. Monitors operation and performance of vehicle activities and flight dynamics. Represents logistics in development of flight procedures, mission checklists, and mission flight rules.

Writes munitions, nuclear weapon, and missile maintenance annexes to logistics plans. Provides weapon system data for operational and logistics support analysis. Monitors and evaluates contracted logistics and maintenance support activities .

Develops procedures for storing, assembling, delivering, inventory management, and testing conventional munitions, nuclear weapons, and missiles.

Develops procedures for, and manages, routine disposal of common US munitions.

Develops munitions accountability programs. Understands and manages all aspects of the Air Force munitions accountability system .

Specialty Qualifications:

Knowledge. Knowledge is mandatory of: Maintenance and personnel management procedures, basic weapons, weapons procedures, and organizational and mission requirements; capabilities, limitations, and basic operating principles of aircraft systems conventional air-to-air missiles; air-to-ground weapons including guided, rocket-boosted, and unguided munitions; dispensers and submunitions, suspension and release equipment, and components; theory of flight and airframe construction; quality assurance; supply, transportation, logistics plans, contracting, flying operations, munitions units, civil engineering, and other unit operations related to aircraft maintenance units. Knowledge is mandatory of the total maintenance process encompassing aircraft and munitions maintenance from acquisition to operational maintenance. Officers must understand an integrated approach to maintenance disciplines to support warfighting, operational, and training requirements .

21B3A. Nuclear weapons and warheads; missile and re-entry systems; nuclear armament systems; suspension and release equipment; weapon use-control; nuclear surety; joint nuclear procedures; related test, handling, and SE; evolution of missiles; missile operations including booster and payload processing; and solid and liquid rocket performance, maintenance capabilities, limitations, and employment of missile equipment

Education. For entry into this AFSC, an undergraduate academic degree in management, engineering, industrial management, business management, logistics management, space operations, or physical sciences is desirable.

Training. For award of the 21B3, completion of either the AETC in-residence Aircraft Maintenance Officer Course (AMOC) or the basic weapons and munitions maintenance course, and one of the maintenance bridge courses is mandatory.

21B3A. Completion of a basic missile or nuclear munitions maintenance course.

Experience. For award of AFSC 21B3, a minimum of 48 months of experience managing aircraft or weapons maintenance activities and completion of CFETP requirements is mandatory

21B3A. A minimum of 24 months of experience in nuclear weapons or ICBM maintenance activities.

Other. None.

Specialty Shredouts:

A - Nuclear

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Above Information Derived from AFMAN 36-2105