Editing Vandenberg Space Force Base (section)

====== PGM-17 Thor ======
[[File:Thor IRBM.jpg|thumb|upright|PGM-17 Thor IRBM]]
The 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 ([[Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile]]). The launch from Vandenberg inaugurated the intermediate-range ballistic missile portion of the [[Pacific Missile Range Facility|Pacific Missile Range]] and was fired by a crew from the [[1st Missile Division]]. The first successful launch of a Thor IRBM by a [[Royal Air Force]] crew took place at Vandenberg AFB on 16 April 1959. The launch was part of integrated weapon system training. In October 1959, the first combat training launch of a Thor IRBM by a Royal Air Force crew was successful.

On 22 April 1960, the fourth and final British-based Thor IRBM squadron was turned over to the Royal Air Force by the Strategic Air Command, thus completing the [[Project Emily|deployment of this weapon system]] in the [[United Kingdom]]. The next month, the first missile to be removed from an operational unit and sent to Vandenberg AFB for confidence firing arrived from a Thor IRBM squadron ([[No. 98 Squadron RAF]]) in the United Kingdom. Confidence firing was the predecessor of SAC's operational test program.<ref name="vafbhistory"/><ref name="Chronology"/>