Tinker Air Force Base leaders readily shared their knowledge and expertise with Tinker and the Primes Conference attendees on Aug. 14-16 at the Reed Center in Midwest City.
The 13th Annual Tinker and the Primes is designed as a collaborative effort marrying the Air Force’s potential needs with Department of Defense contractors, industry partners, exhibitors and various organizations. It successfully provided potential service and equipment contractors with the opportunity to hear and speak directly with many of Team Tinker’s active military, federal and contract employees.
Led by the Midwest City Chamber of Commerce, local civic leaders and Rose State College, many of Tinker AFB’s lead experts gave insightful presentations, including a keynote speech by Brig. Gen. Chris Hill, commander of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, on Aug. 15, followed by 72nd Air Base Wing Commander Col. Kenyon Bell and others on Aug. 16
Focused on this year’s conference theme “Assuring our Future through Agility,” Bell’s presentation, “An Agile Power Projection Platform” explored how Tinker AFB supports the needs of approximately 91,000 people (including retirees and military dependents).
“On a daily basis, we have about 30,000 people who work, live and play at Tinker,” Bell said. “The 72nd ABW takes care of everything from roadways to gymnasiums across the installation to ensure readiness.”
Bell described the base’s mission partners, including the largest, the OC-ALC. He also expounded about the many different organizations, including the 552nd Air Control Wing, U.S. Navy, 507th Air Refueling Wing and other units housed at Tinker AFB.
“We’ve got $5.4 billion in resources (and) we have over 19 million square feet in our facilities that we have at the installation and about 5,500 acres is where we stand at Tinker,” Bell said. “There’s not a whole lot of places for us to grow so we have to be very smart about how we utilize the space we have at Tinker.”
He said the base’s infrastructure needs to be updated, maintained and that leadership is now required to find “creative ways” to bring all the infrastructure “up-to-par.”
Bell presented Tinker AFB’s future workload, including the new air traffic control tower “something they can feel safe in,” an Airborne Early Warning and Control simulator facility that is coming soon, as well as the KC-46A Pegasus development.
He said he wished he could show the audience “a picture of all the wonderful Airmen out here depending on what you provide.”
“The best picture that comes to mind, if you’ll imagine with me, our Airman Leadership School, which is at the E4 going into the E5 realm,” Bell said. “Their graduation is an electrifying event …they are just as excited today to provide us with combat air power. And, it is because of the relationships that we have with you that give them the tools that they need to be able to do the mission that we have in the defense of freedom.”
Paul Victorian, director of Business Operations, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, then took the stage and shared more information about the OC-ALC’s leadership and the organizations on the base. He said the complex at Tinker AFB is the largest of the Air Logistics Complexes (ALCs) with about 10,000 people who produced about 200 aircraft last year.
He focused on the OC-ALC’s enterprise partnerships, including the Defense Logistics Agency and the 448th Supply Chain Management Wing, along with other industry partners, suppliers, area chambers of commerce and the local union partners.
He said the Art of the Possible, scripted processes and an emphasis on cost-effective readiness all help drive the culture at Tinker AFB and described how construction and other projects will increase in the near future.
Afterwards, Dr. Kristian Olivero, technical director of the OC-ALC, addressed the crowd and shared information about what is going on in the Reverse Engineering and Critical Tooling Cell and the Innovation Network.
“Why do we need the Innovation Network?” Olivero asked. “Because there’s a lot of constraints –– sustainment is a tough business and we’re sustaining multiple generations of aircraft and there are all sorts of challenges.
“So we have developed an Air Force Innovation Ecosystem concept that starts with our organic problem-solving,” Olivero said.
He said consolidating the Air Force’s problem-solving capability is vital and the three sustainment centers (Tinker AFB, Hill AFB and Robins AFB) are focused on different aspects of technology and consolidating the Air Force’s and DoD’s problem-solving capabilities.
Olivero said the ALCs and external partnerships also work together to create a virtual innovation center that connects all the capabilities together and described the approach as “a game-changer.”
He said the ALCs explored what is needed for the future of sustainment and the different technologies available. Some of the capabilities include additive manufacturing using 3D modeling, scanning and lasers.
“Today, we have these labs where we can do advanced repairs and use additive manufacturing ahead of the technology curve …” Olivero said.
He said while Air Force innovations are desired, it can be challenging to get people to fully focus on innovative ideas when they have to work their regular jobs.
Today, Tinker AFB has the REACT cell has 17 dedicated people focused on innovative projects like reverse engineering.
Olivero said there are many challenges in trying to recreate parts that are no longer produced by the original equipment manufacturers, but 3D scanning capabilities, 3D models and 3D printing are helping to transform what had been a ponderous and lengthy process into creating quality castings and parts within months or days.
“We’re doing cool stuff,” he said. “What we’re going to get is a universe where we’re solving our problems at the speed of production.”