Wright-Patterson unit earns Dr. James G. Roche Sustainment Excellence Award

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Amaani Lyle
  • Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
WASHINGTON (AFNS) --  Air Force and contract organizations teamed up to garner an Air Staff-level award recognizing the Air Force Materiel Command program office with the most improved aircraft maintenance and logistics readiness performance.

Members of the 702nd Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, earned the Dr. James G. Roche Sustainment Excellence Award for their B-2 Spirit program.

The 702nd ASG staff partnered with officials from the 556th Aircraft Sustainment Squadron at Tinker AFB, Okla.; the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo.; and Northrup Grumman Corporation in Los Angeles.

Accepting the award were Col. Kevin Harms, the 702nd ASG commander; Col. Arthur Huber II, the Aeronautical Systems Center vice commander,Lt. Col. William Bell, the 556th ACSS commander; and Deborah Talley, the 556th ACSS deputy director. Officials said their organizations raised the performance bar while sustaining a high-demand Air Force asset. Of note, fiscal 2009 was the third consecutive year the B-2 total nonmission capable for maintenance rate was within Air Force standards, with 2009 also having the highest ever aircraft availability rate.

The B-2 achieved the improvements while flying a high peacetime flying hour program, maintaining aircraft on immediate response to support overseas contingency operations and achieving the highest possible rating in a nuclear surety inspection.

Air Staff officials determine the awardees by calculating the improvement for a predetermined set of metrics and multiplying each metric by a corresponding weighted value.

In 2004, the Air Force chief of staff approved the award to promote maintenance excellence.