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Tinker air traffic control unit flies past delivery challenge

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  • Air Traffic Control and Landing Systems Program Office
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  It may not have wings or engines attached, but the Air Traffic Control and Landing Systems Program Office at Tinker works daily to sustain critical Air Force runway landing, navigational, radar and air traffic systems that allows warfighters to fly, fight and win.

The day-to-day mission of the Program Office is in direct support of the warfighter and ensures that both peacetime and contingency operations have the support they need to get the job done.

Shipping the Air Force's newest towable air navigation system by sea hadn't been working out.

The Deployable Tactical Air Navigation System a, 20,000-pound trailerized system had been shipped via sealift two separate times and by the time the system arrived at its final destination, damage was found.

That left the Air Force's 1st Combat Communications Group -- which needed the equipment -- without enough D-TACAN's on hand at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. If a contingency operation arose and a system was needed fast, they may not have been able to meet their tasking.

As the program office that oversees the systems for the Air Force, Tinker's ATCALS program office wanted to help the operators find a solution to fill the mission capability gap. The trick of properly lifting the trailers onto the ships had caused problems before, so they sought other shipping options.

Tinker happened to have the trio of equipment -- which can work together to help set up deployed airfield runway operations -- in storage. The assets had been held over from last year's exit of the 3rd Combat Communications Group from Tinker. The ATCALS program calculated the potential costs and benefits of sending a replacement system via air versus sea transport, the repair costs already incurred, and the high need for working equipment in Germany, plus the opportunity presented itself to be an integral part of keeping the warfighter prepared and trained. There was also the added benefit of allowing many Air Force operators and crews to get on the job training in system preparations, aircraft loading and unloading procedures and operational system evaluations. Once the case was presented to leadership, it was decided that sending the equipment via airlift was the way to go.

Emily Clark, program manager of Deployable Air Traffic Systems, said "they found out it was more cost effective for us to charter an aircraft, than to risk the cost of damaging another system."

Soon, Ms. Clark and eight other members supporting the program were boarding a C-17 Globemaster flown in from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. The special airlift mission recently left Tinker loaded with the 25-foot-long trailer, holding the D-TACAN, along with a Humvee-mounted mobile air traffic control tower and a Humvee-based power generator system together known as a MSN-7 Tower Restoral Vehicle.

As a plus, Ms. Clark and the ATCALS group, including program managers, engineers and analysts got a rare chance to see how their supporting functions translate into the operational world. Soon after the systems arrived at Ramstein AB, they were revved up and tested.

Additional capability was put into the hands of the warfighter, where there is a high demand and a real-world need. No issues were encountered during shipment and the mission was deemed by all involved a complete success.

"All systems checked out as green and fully operational for use by the Air Force," Ms. Clark said.

The air shipment was a rare situation to fulfill an urgent need. The previous shipments had only been the first and second time that the new D-TACAN system had ever been shipped by sealift. Loading procedures have now been clarified and simplified to ensure the lowest risk of damage when systems are shipped this way in the future.

The team also returned with one of the damaged D-TACANs from Germany for repair at Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pennsylvania.

Capt. Holly Rusinski, ATCALS logistics officer, said before the trip that the chance to see how their work at Tinker translates into field use is valuable.

"It's great to see what we do in action; to see a piece of your own equipment deployed, fixed and make sure it gets where it is going safely and bring the damaged asset back," the Captain said. "It helps to see all of our day to day work in action and watch the systems operate as they were intended to, the way it should be."