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In house: Air Force, Navy at Tinker share beneficial maintenance relationship

  • Published
  • By Brandice Armstrong
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., --  The 566th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron is imperative to the Navy mission. The squadron performs depot-level maintenance and corrosion prevention on the E-6 Mercury, flown by Tinker's Strategic Communications Wing ONE.

The squadron's relationship with the Navy began approximately 15 years ago when the Navy commissioned the squadron to do enhanced phase maintenance, which requires inspection and repair tasks similar to the tasks required during the Air Force's E-3 programmed depot maintenance. Five years ago, the squadron started repainting the aircraft.

"The high quality paint job, excellent turn-around time and quick response to getting the post-paint discrepancies corrected is what impressed us," said Kirk Flanagan, Enhanced Phase Maintenance lead for the Navy's Fleet Support at Team Tinker.

Shelvie Tabb, 566th AMXS Disassembly and Cleaning Unit section chief, agreed.

"Paint and de-paint is the livelihood of all the weapons systems," Mr. Tabb said. "Without that you couldn't maintain the aircraft and you couldn't preserve them."

Since that first aircraft, the squadron now performs approximately 30 EPM events on Navy E-6s each year.

The squadron has also accepted two additional workloads from the Navy. They are the bottle pin removal and replacement task, which inspects wing-to-fuselage attachment fitting, and the Service Life Extension Program. The SLEP consists mainly of fastener removal and replacement of the lower wing section.

Mr. Flanagan said since its launch in December 2007 the bottle pin removal results have been positive.

"It worked out really well," Mr. Flanagan said. "The initial plan was to take 12 weeks for the first airplane and we completed it in eight."

The second aircraft started in September 2008 and was expected to take six weeks. It was finished in five weeks, Mr. Flanagan said.

"This is due in part by 566th AMXS's lean process improvement and workload sequencing and Navy task refinement and parts kitting," Mr. Flanagan said. "It's a definite joint effort."

A third aircraft for the bottle-pin project is scheduled for September.

Mr. Flanagan said the SLEP project is intense and the average E-6 will be in a shop for 60 to 100 days. Work on the first SLEP aircraft is scheduled to begin in September.

"As our aircraft are aging, it's requiring more and more depot work," Mr. Flanagan said. "The relationships we foster and some of the process improvements implemented are allowing us to meet our depot schedule and continue to provide a good, solid aircraft to the warfighter in a timely manner."