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Engine partnership active at Tinker's OC-ALC

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  • By Mike W. Ray
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Tinker Air Force Base will soon begin servicing engines that power the U.S. Air Force Global Hawk drone fleet.

Nadine Poland Melind, strategy director for Rolls-Royce Defense Services, said the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex will be the Authorized Military Overhaul Facility for Rolls-Royce AE 3007H engines. Work on these engines currently is performed in a Rolls-Royce shop, "and we will move that work to Tinker," she said.

This will be the company's first public-private partnership to provide engine services for the U.S. Air Force, said George McLaren, manager of external defense communications for Rolls-Royce, Indianapolis, Ind. It also will be the company's first facility in the OC-ALC.

"The Oklahoma City ALC looks forward to this important step that brings together the skill and expertise of our depot workforce and Rolls-Royce," said Brig. Gen. Gene Kirkland, commander of the OC-ALC. "While the partnership will initially utilize current capabilities to meet RQ-4 Global Hawk requirements, we hope to explore additional collaboration on future Air Force missions."

A $49 million contract to establish the repair depot was awarded to Rolls-Royce by the Global Hawk Systems Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. "We look forward to working with the U.S. Air Force to create a new services facility for Rolls-Royce AE 3007H engines" at Tinker AFB, said Paul Craig, president of Rolls-Royce Defense Services.
The new facility is expected to begin operations in 2015. Ms. Melind said it will take a couple of years to "do final design and build-out of the shop floor," to order and install work stations, assembly platforms and "the tremendous amount of tooling" that will be required, and to perform the "rigorous training" that the mechanics will receive.

The depot will be supported by Rolls-Royce engineering services and will be equipped with material provided by the company, said Nick Willis, Depot Activation, OC-ALC, Resources Management.

Ms. Melind said Rolls-Royce does not yet know how many workers their depot will employ. The workforce will be a mix of Rolls-Royce and Tinker employees, Mr. Willis said.

The maintenance front shop will be established in Bldg. 3221, and repaired engines will be tested in Bldg. 3703, Mr. Willis said. The test cell will be modified with the installation of engine data acquisition and control systems, coupled with minor changes to the building, Mr. Willis related.

When the maintenance depot becomes fully operational, it will have the capability to repair up to 25 AE 3007H engines per year, Ms. Melind reported.

"Our complex welcomes this opportunity to partner with an industry leader like Rolls-Royce," said Kevin O'Connor, vice director of the OC-ALC. "This partnership demonstrates once again the relevance and competitiveness of this Complex and Tinker Air Force Base in the aerospace maintenance repair and overhaul world. We have a professional workforce and a demonstrated success of maintaining a variety of engines," Mr. O'Connor continued. "We look forward to bringing our competencies to this partnership."

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is an unmanned aerial vehicle employed by both the Air Force and the U.S. Navy. It is a high-altitude aircraft designed for surveillance and security. "It is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform," Ms. Melind said. "It provides eyes and ears in the sky. It is not used for offensive measures."

The Global Hawk can operate at an altitude of 60,000+ feet for more than 30 hours "while providing near-real-time imagery to battlefield commanders," Ms. Melind said. "It can fly anywhere on the earth," and "has already proven itself over the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq."

Rolls-Royce's AE 3007H turbofan jet engine is a variant of the AE 3007 family of engines, which are used in some corporate jets, for example. The AE 3007 was introduced in 1995, and Rolls-Royce has manufactured more than 5,600 of the engines, Ms. Melind said.

The Rolls-Royce AE 3007H maintenance depot "postures us for future work," Mr. Willis said, in particular the Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 engine, which is a lightweight, modular turboprop engine from the 'common core' AE engine product line. The new depot will "give us some experience working with these engines" and thus put Tinker "in a position to be competitive on other models, as well."