Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC
The re-engineering of spare parts support - made possible by advances in information technology - was instrumental in keeping 323 USAF aircraft available in the Kosovo conflict, service officials say.
The aircraft helped NATO deliver 23,000 bombs and missiles and conduct 35,000 sorties over 78 days of air strikes during Operation Allied Force.
The US Air Force's move from individual base supply shops to four regional supply centres was initiated in 1990 during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm. It was conceived by the USAF's installation, logistics and supply policy division to tame a growing "logistics tail", at the same time reducing manpower. The method is being applied to the supply operations of all major USAF commands.
Air Combat Command's (ACC) switchover, begun 18 months ago, was completed last month, says Lt Col Curt Driggers, commander of the regional supply squadron at Langley AFB, Virginia. The US Air Forces in Europe advanced the implementation of the new system at Sembach AB, Germany, during the run-up to the Kosovo air campaign and the Pacific Air Forces also has it running at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. The transformation will be complete next year when Air Mobility Command (AMC) introduces a regional supply system at Scott AFB, Illinois, says Col Art Rooney, the USAF's associate director for logistics resources.
Driggers says Operation Allied Force was the biggest test of supply regionalisation since the 1991 Gulf War. At issue was the need to support hundreds of aircraft thousands of kilometres from their home stations. Among the aircraft deployed were 24 Lockheed Martin F-117 stealth fighters from Holloman AFB, New Mexico, which stayed 11 weeks at Spangdahlem AB, Germany. Twelve Lockheed Martin F-16CJs were deployed from Shaw AFB, South Carolina, to Bandirma AB, Turkey, joining Boeing F-15Es. Eleven Boeing B-52H bombers were forward deployed from Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, sharing tarmac space at RAF Fairford in the UK with six Rockwell B-1B Lancers.
Others deployed included 26 F-15Es normally based at RAF Lakenheath, UK, operating from Aviano AB in Italy. Meanwhile, six Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bombers dropped more than 650 Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munitions over Yugoslavia during 34 missions from their home base at Whiteman AFB, Missouri.
US Secretary of Defense William Cohen and US Army Gen Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, commended the crews who flew the bombers, fighters and support aircraft for carrying out "the most precise application of air power in history".
Ed Merry, chief of the ACC's assessments division, says each military unit deploys with readiness spares packages (RSPs) which contain a month's worth of spare parts, including antennas, avionics, computer processors and ground equipment - a parts inventory computed against historic demand and failure rates.
As the initial stocks of spares are expended, requests for additional parts go to Driggers (in the case of the ACC) via satellite communications, where the flow of equipment is tracked on a computerised database. "We can see requirements for ACC assets wherever they are located and take action to source, track and deliver the needed items to our customers," says Driggers.
Package carriers
Merry says the ACC uses a host of package carriers, such as FedEx, United Parcel Service and Airborne Express to handle the smaller items. The AMC's Lockheed Martin C-130, C-141 and C-5 transports were used to transport hazardous material, classified items and cargo weighing over 68kg (150lb), nicknamed "ugly items". Each spare part destined for aircraft committed to Operation Allied Force was given a priority code. It took an average of four days to get the items where they were needed, including "some pretty remote destinations," says Merry.
Meanwhile, US cargo airlines, such as World Airways, American Trans Air and Evergreen International, picked up additional contracts handling routine troop and equipment movements to Europe and throughout the world. Some cargo flights were directly related to the Yugoslav conflict, with AMC contracting flights to carry meals, tents and other humanitarian freight to bases in Germany and Italy, for forwarding via military transports to refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia.
Driggers saw "no major glitches" during the conflict, despite the diversity of parts being shipped, and "no F-16s became hangar queens for lack of spare parts". He says "just-in-time" parts management has helped the USAF "decide how much stock needs to be in place at a deployed location". Driggers maintains that Operations Northern/Southern Watch over Iraq did not suffer shortages while attention was shifted to Kosovo.
Merry says no critical spare parts shortages have resulted from the intensive air operation. "There was great concern within the USAF that we would have to remove excessive numbers of parts from home station aircraft to conduct Operation Allied Force," he says. On the contrary, the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) was able to ramp up and maintain the pace of repair work beyond the levels authorised during peacetime, allowing a surplus to develop. Meanwhile, the Defense Logistics Agency expedited deliveries of so-called expendable parts, such as screws, fasteners and washers.
Before the Kosovo campaign, for example, the B-1 bomber suffered "serious readiness problems" because of flight control computer glitches. AFMC workers have been able to fix more of the computers than in the past, "putting the B-1s in a better position than they were in three months ago", says Merry.
"B-1 trends over the last several months have been some of the best numbers we've ever seen," he adds. But he says the situation for other aircraft, such as the F-16, will not be determined until pending aircrew training requirements are established and assessments are made on aircraft "wear-and tear".
"The fear was that the spare parts requirements would be higher than AFMC could handle. As we began watching the production surge, we saw that our concerns were unfounded. We could have kept on going for a while," Merry says. Rates of readiness
Still, Rooney says, readiness remains an issue. This year USAF aircraft are achieving a 73.5% mission capable rate, a 10% decline from 1991's rate of 83.4%. He notes, however, that the overall rate for aircraft dedicated to Operation Allied Force was 13% higher than the 1999 peacetime rates because of the readiness measures taken during the Kosovo conflict. He says "a number of actions are in place to arrest the decline and turn things around".
The AFMC might be expected to be facing excessive back orders, but Rooney says the production surge has reduced the numbers. The AFMC has an ongoing programme and the funding to improve the situation further, says Rooney.
Spare parts availability will be addressed in the Department of Defense's Kosovo after-action report, but lessons are already emerging.
The USAF is taking a second look at the RSPs. "Initial indications are that we need to increase the size of some of them," says Rooney. The USAF is also considering the advisability of setting up a regional maintenance and repair site near a future conflict area. It has yet to determine its size and the type of repair work to be performed there.
The USAF believes that depot surge efforts can be refined and that commercial express shipments can be improved. For example, the lack of Sunday pick-up and delivery by some parcel shippers should not delay by one day deliveries of critical spares, according to logistics experts.
Another area of improvement is the return of broken equipment to the depots. Too often, mechanics in the field procrastinate in returning those shipments until much later, delaying their repair. Rooney wants to even out the flow of spare parts in the supply pipeline.
Too often the leather-jacketed pilots get all the credit for successful US military air operations. But USAF logistics officers are not ashamed to point out that "we're the ones who hand out the leather jackets to the pilots". As one logistics officer says: "We resupply airpower."
Source: Flight International
