Table 33
Intermediate-Level and Heavy-Maintenance Production
August 1990 - March 1991683
Product
|
Andersen
|
Moron
|
B-52 Phase Inspections
|
28
|
19
|
KC-135 Phase Inspections
|
0
|
59
|
B-52G Engine Changes
|
122
|
20
|
KC-135 Engine Changes
|
0
|
11
|
B-52 Wash and Corrosion Control
|
60
|
19
|
KC-135 Wash and Corrosion Control
|
0
|
90
|
Repaired line and shop replaceable units
|
4,076
|
2,935
|
Strategic Airlift Maintenance
The Military Airlift Command maintenance concept was fundamentally different from that of either Tactical Air Command or Strategic Air Command and also changed little between peacetime and wartime. Intermediate and heavy maintenance of C-5 and C-141 aircraft was centralized at home stations on the east and west coast of the United States. The Military Airlift Command's C-5 and C-141 maintenance cycle for repairable components during Desert Shield and Desert Storm is illustrated on Figure 67. As was true in peacetime, forward operating locations did not have intermediate repair capability; that capability was provided by Dover AFB for the C-5 and McGuire AFB for the C-141. Overall reparable asset flow times were comparable to those of peacetime and are summarized in Table 34 for the C-5 and Table 35 for the C-141. The main purpose of presenting the data is that they provide one measure of the routine resupply and other logistics cycle times achievable when operational aircraft and their intermediate maintenance are in different theaters. Note that the resupply times achieved by Desert Express (seventy-two hours) are significantly better than those of either the C-5 or C-141.
Of equal importance with cycle times are failures experienced versus failures planned for. If “planned for” is taken to be the supply items in the War Readiness Spares Kits plus base-level self-sufficiency spares, there was only a partial match. For the C-5, for example, thirty-six to thirty-nine percent of the items in kits were not in demand at any time during Desert Shield or Desert Storm.
Military Airlift's C-141 and C-5 aircraft operated under an isochronally (i.e., equally spaced time intervals) scheduled maintenance concept, with home station checks every 50 days and alternating major and minor inspections every 200 days.684 To increase available airlift, the Command froze the calendar on scheduled maintenance at the beginning of Desert Shield and then reinstated the inspections in late September.685 The
Figure 67
35
MAC Maintenance Cycles
result of deferring maintenance, of course, was a bow-wave of delayed repair work (from an average of 37 open discrepancies to an average of 46 per C‑141 aircraft in the space of a month and a half).686 To catch up on maintenance, the Command requested recall of 890 reservists.687 It asked for only portions of the C‑5/C‑141 maintenance cadres assigned to the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, since mobilizing all the maintenance personnel would have produced more manpower than needed.688 The C‑5/C‑141 maintenance personnel called up helped augment increased airlift operations at Charleston, McGuire, Dover, and Westover Air Force Bases. During the second airlift surge in December and January, scheduled maintenance was deferred again.
Table 34
C-5 Repairable Asset Flow Times689
Figure 67 reference
|
Description
|
Average time (days)
|
Comment
|
E
|
Retrograde forward site to SBSS
|
8.6
|
|
C
|
Intermediate turn time (repaired)
|
5.3
(Dover)
|
65% of units were repaired
|
D
|
Intermediate turn time (NRTS)
|
5.0
|
45% of units were NRTS
|
A
|
Order and ship time from ALC to main operating base
|
19.1
|
|
F
|
Order and ship time from main operating base to forward base
|
18.4
|
|
Table 35
C-141 Repairable Asset Flow Times
Figure 67
reference
|
Description
|
Average time (days)
|
Comment
|
E
|
Retrograde forward site to SBSS
|
12.6
|
|
C
|
Intermediate turn time (repaired)
|
6.9
|
42% of units were repaired
|
D
|
Intermediate turn time (not repairable)
|
4.7
|
58% of units were NRTS
|
B
|
Retrograde from main base to ALC
|
15.3
|
|
|
ALC turn time
|
no data
|
see footnote on C‑5 table
|
A
|
Order and ship time from ALC to main operating base
|
21.1
|
|
F
|
Order and ship time from main operating base to forward base
|
22.2
|
|
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