Center steps up airlift support
by Lanorris Askew
Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Public Affairs
2/19/2004 - ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) -- Strategic airlift directorate officials here are supporting an Air Mobility Command surge request with implications far beyond any in recent history.
This strategic airlift surge, requiring both parts and aircraft, stems from an ongoing troop rotation touted as the largest swap out of U.S. forces since World War II, officials said.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the force rotation "a logistics feat that will rival any in history." And Robins has a big part in this event.
"We are focused on getting the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines back home while ensuring we use every possible resource to deliver replacement troops and equipment," said Col. David Hudson, chief of U.S. Transportation Command's operations division.
The work done here will be business as usual, said Col. Frank Bruno, director of strategic airlift and of the C-5 Galaxy system program office here.
"It's important to note that we've been surging … since Sept. 11," he said. "This troop swap out, and the new requirement to maximize spares and (aircraft) to warfighters, gives us a fresh opportunity to look at what we were doing in the post 9-11 environment to see if there are additional ways to push it up even further."
Since Sept. 11, 2001, people of every military service, both active and reserve components, civilians, contractors and commercial partners have conducted more than 27,000 airlift missions and 290 sealift missions. They have moved almost 1.2 million troops and 3 million tons of equipment and supplies.
Though these figures are impressive, the current force rotation is even more complex, officials said.
While this effort may conjure visions of seemingly endless workdays, Colonel Bruno said he does not anticipate a big increase in man hours.
"We will work overtime as needed to meet requirements," he said. "But, if we work smart, we can really minimize overtime."
Officials here have taken a number of actions to help support the surge including the organization of a Strategic Airlift Control Center.
"We've pulled together several entities within the C-5 system program office who are all working spares requirements on a daily basis," Colonel Bruno said. "I consider the SACC to be the nerve center of this surge operation. As you might imagine, this is a very dynamic environment. Airplanes are getting fixed, they're breaking, and the operations tempo goes up and down. We've got to be responsive. So, we're taking more of a tactical view of this surge operation than in the past in order to deal with the dynamics."
One of the key elements of the control center will be improved communication with the warfighter to better anticipate and plan for changes in the operations tempo.
"The center will serve as a single point of contact for anyone who needs to know exactly where to go to make something happen in strategic airlift," he said.
The center serves as a parts action team, to quickly react to AMC needs.
The colonel said the real focus now, as it has been in the past, is to deliver more spares faster, better and cheaper, which equates to more aircraft for the warfighter.
As a gauge of flying operations numbers, AMC officials at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., reported between 200 to 225 aircraft a day moving in the Tanker Airlift Control Center before Sept. 11, 2001. As combat operations ended in Afghanistan and troop rotation began, the average leveled at about 300 aircraft, with spikes to 350. Today, with the daily rotation of forces, aircraft totals are in the low 400s.
"Some of the things we're working on are the possibility of repositioning some spares at forward locations if the situation calls for it and the possibility of going to the Air Force and getting a higher priority for strategic airlift assets in the supply system so that we drive more spares to the field," Colonel Bruno said.
Currently the directorate is in the best posture for spare parts on the C-5 since operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield with the lowest backorder levels and the lowest mission-impaired capability, awaiting-parts status in about 15 years, Colonel Bruno said.
Directorate officials are working with their counterparts at AMC and suppliers within the depots and the Defense Logistics Agency, as well as a multitude of contractors who produce and repair spare parts.
While reactionary measures are good, building reliability and maintainability into parts makes them fail less often and puts less of a strain on the supply system. (USTRANSCOM News Service and AMC public affairs contributed to this article) |
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