Lab techs ensure precision engagement

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. David A. Jablonski
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  Air Force precision munitions, used with great success during Operation Iraqi Freedom, could only achieve those results through expertly calibrated weapon systems, said the service’s metrology and calibration program manager at the Pentagon.

That job, said Senior Master Sgt. Maurice Hubbard, is the responsibility of precision measurement equipment laboratory technicians.

Seven such experts, in Southwest Asia as part of a deployable rapid assistance support for calibration facility, provided Air Force warfighters with a calibration facility capable of sustaining a wide variety of aircraft and weapon-system equipment in theater during the war.

Deployed from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, in January, team members calibrated 1,170 test measurement diagnostic equipment items and downloaded more than 130 technical orders, supporting 86 customers who operated 26 airframes in 13 countries by mid-May.

That kind of versatility is typical of the support provided by laboratory experts, Hubbard said.

“We bring something to the fight for everyone,” he said.

Today’s laser-guided and global positioning system-aided munitions provide previously unheard of levels of accuracy, he said. But to achieve such precision, the weapons systems that deliver the munitions must be calibrated to exacting standards. These standards must be measured and verified at regular intervals to guarantee continued accuracy. There is no time to send equipment to a depot when people are performing around-the-clock flying operations, Hubbard said.

“The ability to have a deployed calibration facility in theater enables the Air Force to meet warfighter requirements with considerably shorter turn-around-time while reducing or eliminating the need for logistics spares,” said Tony Woods, chief of the program’s plans and programs branch. “Ultimately this results in a smaller deployed footprint and greatly reduced intratheater airlift requirements.”

“In the build-up prior to and during OIF, many units within U.S. Central Command Air Forces contacted (program officials) for assistance with obtaining calibration support within theater,” he said.

“Deploying with calibrated equipment and (sharing the) new calibrated equipment was not always possible,” he said. “After (the calibration facility) was deployed, CENTAF officials said their units were extremely pleased with the support they were getting.”

Facility workers provide in-theater-calibration and minor-repair capability, Woods said. Once equipment has been supported by the facility the first time, a workload scheduler monitors equipment due dates and assists the owner to keep his equipment in calibration. The facility serves as the critical link between deployed-weapon systems and American measurement standards ensuring weapon-system accuracy and capability.

“We provide the capability to ensure the accuracy, reliability and traceability of test equipment,” Hubbard said. “This test equipment is used, for example, in ‘Identification Friend or Foe.’ Before any fighter leaves the tarmac, a technician tests the IFF system. If it doesn’t function, that pilot will not take off.”

There are 78 laboratories worldwide servicing more than 700,000 diagnostic-equipment items. This equipment is used not only to support weapons systems, but service such everyday systems as medical equipment, civil engineer surveying equipment and even orderly room scales.

“Everyone relies on systems of measurement in some way,” Hubbard said. “That’s why the field is committed to not only meeting fixed-base requirements, but also meeting (AEF) mission requirements.”

And it is at the deployable calibration facility, Hubbard said, that the program has really proven its worth.

“Keeping the equipment working up to its designed capability and in the hands of the warfighter is the ultimate goal of (facility workers),” he said. “I think OIF has proven its value.”