A US Air Force facility since 1953, Spangdahlem AB is home to the service's 52nd Fighter Wing, which includes the Fairchild A/OA-10 Thunderbolt II-equipped 81st Fighter Sqn and the 22nd and 23rd Fighter Sqns, both of which fly the Lockheed Martin F-16CJ. The 22nd Fighter Squadron was deployed for the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.
The 23 A/OA-10s assigned to the 81st Fighter Sqn - late production models delivered in 1981-2 - undergo a phase-inspection every 400 flight hours, with this roughly equivalent to one year of operations. This field-level inspection takes 40 maintainers and technicians from the base's 52nd Equipment Maintenance Squadron between 10 and 12 days to complete, and also includes scheduled technical modifications, such as the replacement of fatigued wiring.
Spangdahlem is being expanded so it can accommodate around 30% of the USAF's transport aircraft now operating from Frankfurt's Rhein-Main AB. The remainder of these will be redeployed to the USAF's Ramstein AB transport hub in Germany, when the service ceases operations from Rhein-Main by mid-2005.
Source: Flight International
