Flight arms the fight

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman James Croxon
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Airmen here maintain the F-16 Fighting Falcon's armament system, a complex matrix of pylons, launchers, adapters and other equipment used to hold bombs and missiles in place until they are released and fired.

The Airmen are assigned to the 332nd Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron Armament Flight. 

The armament system is also known as alternate mission equipment, or AME. The flight also maintains the universal ammunition loading system, or UALS, used to load the 20 mm Gatling gun that pilots use to strafe ground targets or shoot down air-to-air threats. The universal ammunition loading system has more than a thousand moving parts, linked together to form the belts and catches that handle each bullet.

From a distance, the loading system resembles a giant, reticulated insect on wheels. All that complexity is needed to load and unload the six-barrel gun. 

Maintaining the universal ammunition loading system is "the bread and butter of what we do here," said Master Sgt. Jose Rodriguez, 332nd EMS Armament Flight chief.

"It's fairly common for a UALS to require increased maintenance due to their high use in the combat environment," Sergeant Rodriguez said. "If it can't be repaired on the flightline, it comes back to us. Repairs can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days." 

The armament flight Airmen are also experts on the F-16's 20 mm gun. Maintaining proficiency on the gun system is a lengthy process that requires tedious and time-consuming hands-on work, Sergeant Rodriguez said.

The gun is housed under multiple panels on the left side of the aircraft. The system is both mechanical and electrical and more complicated than bullets, a trigger and barrels. Despite these challenges, the flight has achieved a 100-percent gun fire rate, Sergeant Rodriguez said. 

In addition to the full assortment of AME carried by the aircraft when they arrive, the flight has extras in storage to quickly replace damaged equipment. 

"The flight is in charge of maintaining several hundred pieces of AME and nearly a dozen UALS," said Tech. Sgt. Walter Anderson. "There is a constant rotation of scheduled maintenance to be done as well as unscheduled maintenance." 

The flight keeps ahead of the constant maintenance with 24-hour operations split into day and night shifts. The 15-person flight is split almost evenly between active duty and Guard. More than a third are senior airmen or below. 

"The heat is probably the biggest challenge," said Airman 1st Class Sam Fairchild. "It gets over 120 degrees in the work area, but it's worth it to know the work I do is one of the most important parts of the mission." 

"This is the most rewarding thing I've done in my career so far," said Senior Airman Jean Jackson. "I've been able to work on equipment here I probably would never have seen back home, like the LAU-131 rocket launcher. It's a lot of responsibility knowing the mission is counting on my work, but it's worth the stress and heat when the mission succeeds because of it."