ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Many in Abilene were startled around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday by the sounds of a loud siren. Apparently, though, there’s nothing to worry about.

Check out this footage of the siren going off, heard in South Abilene:

A witness told KTAB/KRBC the noise lasted around three minutes.

We reached out to Dyess Air Force Base to find out what was going on.

“The sirens were part of a wing readiness exercise on base,” a Dyess representative said.

All that noise that might have kept you up was the 317th Airlift Wing carrying out a readiness exercise. Dyess said this exercise evaluates the wing’s ability to, “generate, employ, and sustain tactical airlift in a contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment.”

What was the purpose for the exercise? Dyess said it showcases the Air Force’s ACE (Agile Combat Employment), which moves operations from a physical operating base to smaller, dispersed spaces. The goal is to deter an enemy attack.

“ACE is essential to guarantee dominance in tomorrow’s conflicts: it’s the things we do to protect personnel, equipment, and facilities before, during, and after an attack so they can continue to generate combat airlift power from dispersed and remote locations,” added Dyess.

Full statement from Dyess Air Force Base:

The sirens went off sometime between midnight and 0100 this morning.
The 317th Airlift Wing is conducting a readiness exercise that evaluates their ability to generate, employ, and sustain tactical airlift in a contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment. The scenario-based training event tested the wing’s ability to receive an emergent tasking and rapidly deploy to a new location and provide critical airlift support. The exercise included mountain low-level formation flying, rapidly deploying tents and other essential operating equipment, and establishing reliable command and control at remote forward operating bases.
The exercise showcases what the Air Force calls “Agile Combat Employment,” or ACE. ACE shifts operations from centralized physical infrastructures to a network of smaller, dispersed locations. Its primary goal is to deter an enemy attack from ever happening by increasing the political and operational cost of adversary aggression and to ensure our forces are agile enough to complicate and confuse enemy targeting. ACE is essential to guarantee dominance in tomorrow’s conflicts: it’s the things we do to protect personnel, equipment, and facilities before, during, and after an attack so they can continue to generate combat airlift power from dispersed and remote locations.