LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --
Air
Mobility Command is extending the life of the C-130J as they change how they
manage the fleet, ensuring more flexibility to respond to operational needs.
The Air
Force's current fleet management approach assigns platforms to particular wings
and keep them with those units through the life of the platform. This approach
gives wings ownership of aircraft, but according to Brig. Gen. Steven
Bleymaier, AMC's director of logistics, it can also lead to an imbalance in fleet
health based on how those wings use and maintain the airframes they own.
"Different
wings have different missions, so you have the same weapons system at different
wings, but at one wing, the aircraft are aging a lot faster in terms of flying
hours or the profiles that they're flying," Bleymaier said in an Oct. 28
interview at the Airlift Tanker Association conference. "What we've
learned is that when you do the analysis, perhaps that's not the best way for
the long-term health of the fleet."
The new
approach, called Total Force Enterprise Sustainment
and Modernization, aims to swap aircraft among units, as needed, to balance the way
the airframes are being used and increase longevity of the fleet. The C-130J is
a part of this new approach and the 19th AW welcomes the change as it ensures
the operational readiness of the physical aircraft, remains consistent.
Maj.
William Westendorf, 19th Aircraft Maintenance squadron operations officer, said
that moving to an enterprise management approach for the C-130J allows staggering
of the heavy maintenance cycle, greatly affecting the aircraft life expectancy.
This management allows the 19th Airlift Wing to better manage the flying hour
program with a significant near-term cost avoidance, he noted.
"We
received a completely new aircraft from the assembly line last year and in
exchange we sent one of our aircraft to Yokota AFB in Japan,” Westendorf said. “This
enabled us to spread the mission requirements across the fleet which reduced
wear and tear on our aircraft.”
The
C-130J has a number of variants, and with AMC taking care of so many airframes,
it is important to get the C-130J platform moved as quickly as possible to ensure
consistent readiness across the fleet.
“When the
Air Force added the C-130J to its fleet, they were given to Little Rock Air
Force Base and other AMC bases in succession from Lockheed Martin,” Westendorf
said. “Receiving the new aircraft one after another from Lockheed Martin caused
each base’s fleet of J-models to be due for depot maintenance at approximately
the same time.”
This impacted
flying operations significantly because when the aircraft go through depot maintenance
it can take months to return back to operations. When the aircraft are swapped with
other AMC bases though, it staggers the depot maintenance cycle so that each
base does not have too many of its aircraft at depot all at once.
“The availability of aircraft greatly affects our ability to carry out combat operations as well as support global humanitarian efforts. We take pride in our abilities to carry out any mission or tasking when called upon providing agile combat airlift across the globe,” Westendorf said.
Bleymaier
noted that for some fleets, achieving a level of homogeneity among variants
that allows the service to swap wings may be cost-prohibitive. The transition
to the new construct, which will take some time to implement, could drive more
homogeneity on legacy fleets, improving consistent readiness.
"The
swapping of aircraft within AMC promotes the overall health of the USAF’s
C-130J fleet, which in turn enhances the USAF’s global combat readiness and
humanitarian support, and we’re extremely proud to be a part of that process,”
Westendorf said.