12 Facts About Vandenberg AFB

Vandenberg AFB Space Force Base, previously Vandenberg AFB Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California.

Vandenberg AFB participated in the Mexican War, the Indian Wars, and the Civil War.

The initial mission of Cooke Vandenberg AFB was to serve both as a training site for the PGM-17 Thor, SM-65 Atlas, and HGM-25A Titan I missiles, and as an emergency operational facility for Atlas ICBM.

Transition from U S Army camp to missile base solidified on 15 December 1958 when Vandenberg AFB successfully launched its first missile, a PGM-17 Thor IRBM The launch from Vandenberg inaugurated the intermediate-range ballistic missile portion of the Pacific Missile Range and was fired by a crew from the 1st Missile Division.

On 16 October 1958, the first Atlas ICBM launcher constructed at Vandenberg AFB, California, was accepted from the contractor by the 1st Missile Division.

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The following month, equipped with a nuclear warhead, the Atlas at Vandenberg AFB became the first ICBM to be placed on alert in the United States.

On 25 March 1966, the 200th SAC missile launched from Vandenberg AFB, California was a Titan II.

In July 1974, the initial training of Minuteman missile combat crews, formerly performed by Air Training Command instructors at Vandenberg AFB, California, was incorporated into the 4315th Combat Crew Training Squadron's Operational Readiness Training program at Vandenberg.

In 1972, Vandenberg AFB was selected as the West Coast Space Shuttle launch and landing site, but it was never used as such.

Since the demise of the shuttle program at Vandenberg AFB, SLC-6 was reconfigured, this time to support polar-orbit satellite launches by the new Delta IV family of launch vehicles, utilizing a Common Core Booster for class sizes all the way up to and including the Delta IV launcher.

The Western Range begins at the coastal boundaries of Vandenberg AFB and extends westward from the California coast to the Western Pacific, including sites in Hawaii.

Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Vandenberg AFB, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.