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U.S. Air Force News

  • Total force integration significant in KC-46 support

    When the Air Force and Boeing launched the KC-46 Pegasus program, the 412th Test Wing was tagged as one of the prime players in testing and validation of the aircraft. To help with this, the wing is now relying on support from the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve.

  • Keeping the B-1 airborne

    The Air Force employs thousands of aircraft maintainers to perform the upkeep on all of its different airframes. It's up to maintainers like Senior Airman Jason Stach, a B-1B aircraft technician from the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, to keep the Lancer mission ready.

  • Assuring maintenance quality for the RPA mission

    Quality assurance Airmen in the maintenance world are known by many titles -- the “best of the best,” the “eyes and ears,” and even “sharks in the water” for their no nonsense attitudes toward maintenance. No matter how they’re viewed, Airmen of the 432nd Maintenance Group QA shop are accountable

  • James gets welding lesson during Fairchild visit

    Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James visited Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, on April 27 to better understand the daily operations of the 92nd and 141st Air Refueling Wings and 336th Training Group.

  • Maintenance is key to keeping Yokota, Kadena aircraft flying

    The aircraft at Yokota and Kadena air bases in Japan rely on the 374th Maintenance Squadron’s phase docks to receive their maintenance and keep them going. Every 540 days, a C-130 Hercules or MC-130 Talon II enters the phase docks for an inspection and repairs. During the 14- to 16-day process,

  • New Reserve unit to open doors at Keesler

    The 403rd Wing is going through a period of growth with the activation of an additional aircraft maintenance squadron solely focused on keeping the 815th Airlift Squadron's 10 C-130J Super Hercules aircraft healthy and in the air.

  • Keeping the C-17 in the fight

    The 8th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron maintenance team at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, helps keep the base’s C-17 Globemaster III fleet mission ready by performing regular maintenance on each aircraft. The unit provides the only tier two C-17 maintenance capability in the U.S. Central Command

  • Structural maintainers provide backbone of RPAs

    When people have a blemish, they see a dermatologist; when they have a physiological problem, they see an orthopedist. For the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, aircraft structural maintainers fill both the aesthetic and structural maintenance roles to keep remotely piloted aircraft in check.

  • Al Udeid shop operates most productive AF wheel, tire repair facility

    The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron operates the only wheel and tire repair facility in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility and the most productive facility in the Air Force. In the past year, the squadron’s wheel and tire maintenance team produced 3,000 serviceable tires, more

  • 33rd FW hosts first F-35A load competition

    The 33rd Fighter Wing held its first weapons load competition with the F-35A Lightning II at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, Feb. 5 to find the best weapons load crew in the 33rd Maintenance Group.

  • Out of the shadows: ACMS Airmen provide missing link

    Preparing to support remotely piloted aircraft operations is no easy task. Still, Airmen assigned to the 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing recently spent time showing leadership exactly what it takes to provide RPA intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support at any time.

  • Avionics flight ensures aircraft equipment mission ready

    Avionics specialists with the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, manage an $83 million electronic warfare pod fleet and provide critical support to ensure aircraft stay mission ready.

  • Offutt gives students a chance at mechanics

    Students studying airframe and power plant disciplines at Iowa Western Community College have a unique opportunity to intern with the 55th Maintenance Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, after the squadron cut roughly 300 military slots and replaced them with approximately 150 civilian

  • Into thin air: Liquid oxygen keeps pilots flying

    As an aircraft reaches a higher altitude, the air pressure decreases, sometimes leaving aircrews little air to breathe. When this happens, pilots and crew members are able to utilize the liquid oxygen provided by Airmen from the 36th Maintenance Squadron, thus enabling them to complete the mission.

  • Munitions Airmen build bombs at record pace

    The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron Munitions Flight at Al Udeid Air Base is setting a new record with each bomb they build. The team of nearly 60 Airmen has assembled almost 4,000 bombs since July, surpassing the previous record by more than 1,600.

  • Keeping the C-5 fleet in check

    The 436th Maintenance Squadron Isochronal Maintenance Dock helps keep the largest aircraft in the Air Force inventory, the C-5 Galaxy, in the air to deliver cargo, combat equipment and humanitarian relief supplies to anywhere in the world whenever called upon.

  • Cut Training keeps maintenance mission moving

    The 354th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron has created a program called Cut Training to train Airmen from different maintenance career fields to perform crew chief tasks and keep the mission going.

  • Pave Hawk maintainers keep rescue birds flying

    Airmen assigned to the 41st Expeditionary Helicopter Maintenance Unit here constantly work maintaining HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters so that the combat rescue mission in Afghanistan can be a success if and when it is needed.

  • Hot maintenance

    Carrying out maintenance on Dover Air Force Base’s fleet of C-5M Super Galaxies and C-17A Globemaster IIIs can be challenging at times, but extreme heat and humidity can add additional challenges during the summer months.

  • Maintaining the vehicles that move the mission

    Imagine unloading 60,000 pounds of cargo by hand. Aircraft missions, personnel movements and supply distributions would come to a screeching halt. The time and resources necessary to accomplish such a task would be detrimental to the mission.

  • Equipment specialist saves AF money by building simulator

    Just a few months into his work as equipment specialist with Air Force engineering and technical services for the 732nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Tangog, a retired master sergeant noticed his leadership was looking for ways to save money on training.

  • Periodic inspection: Just what the ‘tanker doc’ ordered

    For more than 40 years, KC-135 Stratotankers have been flying over the sunflower state, and just like any other crew member, they need their "check-ups" too. Keeping the 60-year-old planes up-to-date and safe to fly takes more than a simple check-up; it takes a team of tanker "docs" ensuring each

  • Quality assurance: Making sure it’s done right

    Have you ever watched a movie, or professional wrestling, and find yourself rooting for the villain at the end?Around the flightline, there’s a group of ‘bad guys’ that represent their career field’s most knowledgeable maintainers and make up the office known as quality assurance.

  • Tinker acquires land for KC-46A Pegasus maintenance

    Tinker Air Force Base officials announced Feb. 2, the acquisition of 158 acres of land on the southwest side of the base to stand up a depot maintenance facility for the Air Force's next-generation aerial refueling aircraft, the KC-46A Pegasus.

  • A $2 solution to a $3,000 problem

    A brand new circuit board for a rescue fire truck can cost more than $3,000 to replace, regardless of why it has malfunctioned, but fire truck maintainers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington dug a little deeper into the issue and discovered a $2 solution. Recently, the shop was faced with

  • Airmen keep F-16s rolling

    The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a highly technological, maneuverable, multirole fighter aircraft capable of reaching speeds of Mach 2 when in the air, but without wheels and tires, it is nothing more than a static display.

  • F-22 Raptor team recipient of DOD maintenance award

    A team responsible for depot maintenance on the F-22 Raptor is one of the recipients of the Secretary of Defense Maintenance Award for depot and field-level units. These awards are presented annually to recognize outstanding achievements in weapon system and military equipment maintenance. The

  • Flight gives face-lift to Eglin's vehicle fleet

    Keeping the Air Force's third largest vehicle fleet looking good is not an easy task, but efforts by the 96th Logistics Readiness Squadron's Vehicle Management Flight make it happen.

  • Airmen repair runway in Afghanistan

    Airmen from the 455th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron and the 577th Expeditionary Prime Base Engineer Squadron completed flightline repairs to the main runway here June 9.

  • F-16s train alongside F-35s

    F-16s from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, flew air-to-air combat training missions with F-35As assigned to the 33rd Fighter Wing, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

  • Aero repair keeps ‘birds’ in the air

    With the highest volume of flying missions in the U.S. Air Forces Central Command area of responsibility, aircraft at the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing rely on a team of professional maintainers to keep them in top shape to accomplish the air tasking order.

  • Maintenance makes RPA history possible

    During the morning of Oct. 22, the aircraft parking ramps at a deployed location roared to life. Checklists were run, hatches checked, and missions briefed as the crew chiefs, support units and air crew carefully prepared an MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted aircraft for flight, just as they would on

  • F-35: New fighter creates new culture for 21st Century and beyond

    She didn’t have a smudge on her. Not a leak found anywhere. She even had that “new jet smell.” Skies were blue, everything was perfect. Those were the conditions on that July day in 2011 when Lt. Col. Eric Smith took off from the Lockheed facilities at Fort Worth, Texas, in the first operational

  • Luke AGE gets 'lean,' increases production

    The 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron Aerospace Ground Equipment flight held a "lean" event recently in an effort to operate more efficiently, saving the Air Force money and man hours. The event is designed to look at current processes to see if there are ways to do things smarter.A team of AGE

  • $20 solution solves 14K problem

    12th Flying Training Wing T-38C pilots and maintainers will begin using multi-function display, or MFD, covers this month, saving the wing $182,000 a year in broken MFDs all for only $3,600 - just a little more than a quarter of the price for a repaired MFD.

  • Technicians coengineer cost-saver with a spin

    Staff Sergeants Alex Aguayo and Michael Rogers, aircraft metals technicians with the 6th Maintenance Squadron, co-engineered a way to centrifugally mount a KC-135's nose and main landing wheel on a rotating base to allow the entire part to be painted in a single step.