SOUTHWEST ASIA -- The 727th Expeditionary Air Control Squadron, also known as Kingpin, experienced a commercial power outage at an undisclosed location, July 22, 2016.
Kingpin is responsible for monitoring airspace and managing aircraft within an Air Forces Central Command area of responsibility, and without electrical power operators cannot effectively command and control air operations from the ground.
“If power is lost at any of our sites, it greatly limits our ability to talk to aircraft via radios and see our aircraft via sensor radars,” said Capt. Ryan, 727th EACS chief of maintenance. “This can create an unsafe environment for our pilots and impact general operations.”
Kingpin has double redundancy for unexpected power loss, Ryan said. Backup generators and an uninterruptable power supply can each handle the power load of the facility independently. Additionally, the 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer and 380th Expeditionary Communications squadrons ensured the facility never completely lost power or mission capability.
“When the outage occurred, all of the backup generators worked as designed except one,” said Master Sgt. Michael, 380th ECES power production supervisor. “This one particular generator required us to quickly troubleshoot and repair the unit.”
Within minutes, the generator was repaired and back online providing emergency power to the facility, and a few hours later 380th ECES electricians repaired the damaged commercial power circuit breaker that caused the initial outage, according to Michael.
“Frequent visual inspections and operational checks ensure our power-pro crews are ready to respond, rather than react,” he said. “The quick-thinking and technical expertise of my crew resulted in a hasty resolution and no mission interruption.”
While 380th ECES electricians worked to fix the backup generator, a portion of the Kingpin facility relied solely on the uninterruptable power supply to keep up mission operations, according to Capt. Christopher, 380th ECS operations flight commander.
“The facility houses critical communications equipment that supports Air Forces Central Command’s theater-wide operations,” Christopher said. “The loss, incapacitation or disruption of it could result in mission degradation to many of our base's organizations.”
Staff Sgt. Brandon, 380th ECS technical control facility night crew member, responded to the outage along with 380th ECES electricians in order to closely monitor the power levels of the UPS system to ensure mission communications were not interrupted, he said.
“Brandon continuously tracked the status of the UPS batteries and reported the situation to ECS leadership so they could notify 727th EACS, group and wing leadership of the upcoming risk,” he said. “This enabled everyone to prepare accordingly for the best and worst contingencies.”
Teamwork, communication and preparation within the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing ensured the continuous success of AFCENT’s mission in the fight against violent extremists.
“It's impressive to see everyone at every level, no matter their unit, rank, or specific job, focus on their role in getting the mission done,” said Col. Christoff Gaub, 380th Expeditionary Mission Support Group commander. “It's especially impressive when they recognize emergencies and quickly coordinate and execute solutions. Restoring power to Kingpin is a great example of how effective our Airmen can be when we trust them with authority and resources.”
(Some last names were removed due to safety and security concerns.)