Missile Badge - Purpose and Degrees

Purpose and Degrees

The Missile Badge is awarded as a permanent decoration upon a service member’s graduation from missile operations or maintenance officer training (if awarded to an officer) or from maintenance tech school if awarded to an enlisted service member. The badge is worn on the lower left pocket and is the largest of the U.S. Air Force specialty badges. It is also one of the few United States military badges which is not transferable between services, meaning that a qualified Missile crew member, who transfers to another branch of the United States armed forces cannot display the Missile Badge on another service uniform.

The Missile Badge is issued in three degrees being basic, senior and master. The level of degree is determined by a service member’s years of missile duty in the Air Force and also the level of command responsibility held within the Air Force missile units. Any officer who is or has been combat mission ready (CMR), as a missile crewmember at an operational ICBM unit qualifies to wear the missile badge with operations designator—a wreath encircling the missile. The basic badge is awarded once the member graduates Initial Qualification Training at Vandenberg AFB. Officers with six years of nuclear experience qualify for the senior badge, and they qualify for the master-level badge after nine years experience. The Senior Missile Badge is denoted by a star above the decoration with the Master Missile Badge displaying a star and wreath.

The Missile Badge without operations designator is awarded to those qualified to perform maintenance on the weapon system, but are not involved with the actual launch procedures. Most Air Force members, who earned the Missile Badge with operations designator, also earned the Combat Readiness Medal after two years of qualified service serving in an active missile silo. All personnel qualifying for the operations designator also receive the Space and Missile Badge if they have attended the Space 100 class at Vandenberg AFB, CA. Missile operations (13SxC) is a subset of the Space Operations career field (13S). As of 1 October 2009, officers who have gone through the missile operations training are awarded their badge upon completion of the class.