VANDENBERG AFB -- A Minuteman 3 missile set to blast off from here early Wednesday represents a bigger role for one unit hoping to permanently expand its longtime responsibilities in readying ICBMs for launch.

For the first time on a routine intercontinental ballistic missile test, the 576th Flight Test Squadron completed all of the maintenance work to ready the weapon for blastoff, officials said. Typically, that job is handled by a visiting task force that hails from the same place the missile once served on alert.

But the unit from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., said mission priorities at their home base made it difficult to send a full task force here, officials said.

"They asked us if we would be willing and of course we jumped all over it," said Lt. Col. Michael Fortney, 576th Flight Test Squadron commander. "This is something we would like to do more of."

Minot still sent six missile combat crew members who have pulled alerts to monitor the missile and will turn the keys for the weapon's launch over night.

The missile and its dummy warheads are set to launch during a six-hour window opening at 1:01 a.m. Wednesday from an underground silo on north Vandenberg.

Weather conditions will accommodate the launch, but won't favor those hoping to catch a glimpse, officials said.

Military officials will track the missile's three unarmed re-entry vehicles as they travel approximately 4,200 miles in about 30 minutes, to predetermined targets at the Kwajalein Missile Range in the central Pacific Ocean.

"The 350 or so men and women of the 576th take this mission real seriously," said Fortney. "The folks here know this is a vital mission for two reasons. One, we're the only unit in the United States Air Force, maybe even the world, that does what we do, so it's important we do it well."

"We not only gather very important test data ... but we demonstrate the nations' ultimate deterrent weapon system here. Anytime we launch one of these off the coast, all eyes are on us and we know that," added Fortney.

Vandenberg typically has several ICBM tests every year so the Air Force can gather data on the reliability and accuracy of the missile fleet. ICBMs are on alert in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota.

In the past, the local unit's role has been limited to installing "Vandenberg specific" equipment, such as ordnance that allows range safety controllers to issue destruct commands if the test weapon veers off course.

But this time, 576th members handled all the maintenance tasks, including lowering the weapon into the silo and attaching umbilical cords that keep the missile healthy and ready for launch.

"They were just as polished, just as smooth and just as competent as a full blown unit up north," said Capt. Steve Kravitsky, a missile flight commander. Rather than a visiting officer, the 576th's missile maintenance supervisor, Lt. Col. Ed McCarty, will serve as task force commander for this mission. It's an expanded role the 576th hopes to take on more often and would save money in travel, lodging and per-diem costs, officials said.

The unit's leaders have suggested that they perform prelaunch maintenance more often, a proposal now under review by other missile officials.

A $371,000 facility, crafted from the cavernous warehouse, has become the 576th's new training facility with various pieces of equipment set up in classrooms.

Rather than learning systems in cramped conditions located more than 70-feet below ground in a missile facility, the new training facility lets instructors and students work in spacious areas, officials said.

Unit members have scrounged for training equipment with some parts coming from other missile units. Other parts will be crafted at a fraction of the real-life cost by Vandenberg's fabrication shop, where workers will replicate equipment that can serve as training tools.

"We train to the highest degree of fidelity," said McCarty. "If a technical order calls for a specific bolt, we have that bolt for training."

In recent years, the 576th twice had seen several top leaders removed after high-profile failures including a missile test flop and transporter-erector accident that damaged a weapon. A report on the accident issued a harsh criticism for training and quality assurance weaknesses.

The 576th has since captured the local Air Force Association's unit award, several Space Command maintenance honors and an "excellent" rating from an intensive inspection.

Fortney, who took command of the unit after the snafus, said inspectors commented that they had "never seen a unit come so far, so fast" with the commander crediting the unit's approximately 350 members.