TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- With parents and senior leaders from the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center in attendance, 28 student interns graduated from the Air Launched Cruise Missile Summer Training Program held here June 3-7, 2024.
The program introduces high school students to real-world projects faced by the AFNWC Missile Sustainment Division and tasks them with learning job roles, applying critical thinking and problem-solving skills, assessing risk management, and presenting recommendations to senior leaders.
“The ALCM Summer Training Program is an exciting opportunity to expose high school students to how an Air Force program office operates using specialized functions in multiple disciplines, such as program management, logistics management, contracting management, engineering, etc., and educate students about the ongoing career opportunities available in those disciplines,” said Ed Rua, AFNWC Missile Sustainment Division chief. “Our hope is, through this and similar events, students will consider degrees in the functional disciplines represented in program offices and seek these opportunities to build lasting careers after they graduate.”
The AGM-86 ALCM is currently the United States’ only nuclear cruise missile. Since 1982, it has been a key component of the nuclear triad, providing the nation with strategic capabilities that assure America’s allies and deter its adversaries. The work of the Missile Sustainment Division at Tinker AFB has enabled a missile that originally had a 10-year service life to serve as a credible deterrent for more than 40 years.
Before starting work on team projects, students were introduced to Tinker AFB programs that contribute to the ALCM mission, including the 76th Software Engineering Group laboratories; programmed depot maintenance line for the B-52 Stratofortress, the aircraft that carries the ALCM; Reverse Engineering and Critical Tooling Lab, which creates hard-to-source legacy parts; and the base control tower.
Beyond the experience and friendships gained in the program, each student received a certificate of completion and 40 hours of instruction, which may qualify the students for high school or college credit.
The Missile Sustainment Division is part of AFNWC’s Air-Delivered Capabilities Directorate. Headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, AFNWC has over 2,000 military and civilian personnel at 20 locations worldwide. The center’s mission is to deliver nuclear capabilities warfighters use every day to deter and assure, ensuring the nation's most powerful weapon systems are never doubted, always feared.