Improved processes increase 379 AEW efficiency

Published July 28, 2008
By Capt. Kristen Pate
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- After more than six years of operations, the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing remains one of the largest wings in the U.S. Air Forces Central Area of Responsibility, supporting an average of 70 missions per day during the last year.

While carrying out the daily Air Tasking Order is a top priority for commanders, these missions couldn't be accomplished without the combined logistical support of multiple units on base. Over the years, these units have refined and streamlined processes in order to increase productivity and the level of support provided to the warfighter in theater. Two examples of refined processes are aircraft fueling and maintenance.

With six different airframes permanently assigned here and a continuous stream of transient aircraft, fueling aircraft on the ground is an around-the-clock process and can make or break a crew's ability to launch on time.

While the wing is still operating on an older, expeditionary fueling system, a newer system has increased the capability of the 379th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron.

"With the old system, we offload fuel from commercial vehicles through the expeditionary receiving point located just off base," said Staff Sgt. Marcus Ortman, 379 ELRS fuels storage supervisor. "The fuel is offloaded here using an R-22 which is an expeditionary fuel pump. From this location, fuel is sent to a 3.8 million gallon storage facility on base known as Bertha. From Bertha, another R-22 is used to push the fuel through a 2.7 mile pipeline to another storage area. From this storage area, R-11 vehicles offload the fuel and refuel the aircraft on the flightline."

While this expeditionary fuel system is still used, a more permanent facility came online in 2007, allowing Airmen to decrease the amount of time and resources required to refuel aircraft on the ground. This enduring facility is a $113 million system, which was funded by the Defense Energy Support Center.

With this system, commercial trucks enter the same expeditionary receiving point. Following a thorough inspection, the vehicles then transit to the Tank Truck Offloading Facility. Here, Airmen have the capability to offload eight trucks simultaneously into two 50,000 gallon underground storage tanks, Sergeant Ortman said. Once the fuel level reaches a certain point, fuel is automatically transferred to a bulk storage facility, capable of holding 6.3 million gallons of fuel.

This storage facility, known as Bulk Storage 1, supplies fuel to four JP-8 fillstands which supply fuel to R-11 vehicles, Sergeant Ortman said. BS-1 also supplies fuel to Operational Storage 1, another hydrant system capable of holding 1.8 million gallons of fuel.

"The new system is much better for a lot of reasons," Sergeant Ortman said. "It reduces the time required to refuel aircraft by about 50 percent and requires a lot fewer people because fuel can be pumped directly from OS-1 or BS-1 instead of being transported one vehicle at a time with limited capacity."

The 379 ELRS also initiated a new DESC-funded project the beginning of this month involving the construction of a 22 mile, 8 inch underground pipeline, which will run from an off-base entity directly on base, eliminating the need for the more than 100 commercial trucks currently transporting fuel to the base daily. This system will replace the expeditionary system and is expected to be complete in May 2009.

Expeditiously transporting fuel to aircraft on the flightline directly supports the Global War on Terror. Repairing those aircraft also directly impacts the war effort by allowing them to quickly rejoin the fight. The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Group is leading the way by improving the efficiency of those repairs.

"The EXMG is AFCENT's most diverse expeditionary maintenance group and consists of approximately 1,000 total force personnel from 68 bases," said Col. Carl Buhler, 379 EMXG commander. "The group performs quality maintenance for the wing's assigned aircraft ... and supports multiple U.S. and coalition flying units that operate an additional seven or more aircraft. To accomplish this, the group merges aircraft, people and equipment into a single cohesive team."

The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron provides theater-wide maintenance through their nine central intermediate repair facilities. These CiRFs drastically reduce the time required for in-theater maintenance jobs which were previously being shipped stateside or to repair facilities in Germany.

"We moved our CiRF from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, around January of 2006," said Senior Airman Beau Columbus, 379 EMXS aerospace propulsion journeyman. "Since then, we've been able to save $2.6 million in retrograde transportation costs and about $1.1 million in annual per diem costs.

"Previously it cost us $70,000 to ship a C-130 propeller back to Germany for repairs," Airman Columbus said. "Now we have the capability to fix them here which saves shipping costs and decreases our turn-around time."

The CiRFs provide in-theater maintenance services for everything from C-130 engines and propellers to F-15E avionics and KC-135 brakes. These nine facilities represent years of process refinement and illustrate the ingenuity of the Airmen here.

As the 379 AEW continues to refine processes and move from 'expeditionary' to 'enduring' the level of support to the warfighter will not change, Colonel Buhler said.

"Simply put, [our] Airmen provide unprecedented power and precision through every wrench turned, bomb loaded, aircraft marshaled and part provided theater-wide."