366th EMS highlights best practice

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Alyssa C. Wallace
  • 366th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho --  In 2009, the 366th Maintenance Group implemented an Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century initiative to conduct end-to-end testing of aging electronic warfare radio frequency cabling and perform full spectrum threat analysis on Mountain Home Air Force Base F-15Es.

The initiative, known as Strike 21, has improved the annual EW assessment scores from below 45 percent to greater than 80 percent, garnering U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense attention.

"The systems we concentrate on have been somewhat neglected because there's no positive feedback for whether your system is working until you go to war or have a specialized team come and assess your jets," said Master Sgt. Matthew Robinson, Strike 21 section chief for the 366th EMS.

Sergeant Robinson said Mountain Home and other bases across the Air Force have not scored well on these tests.

"The maintenance group here decided they wanted to fix that and put together a specialized team to put emphasis on the systems and conduct end-to-end checks of the electronic warfare systems," he said.

The specialized team consists of eight proficient avionics personnel and four tactical aircraft maintenance specialists that are all assigned to the 366th EMS.

Using Strike 21, these experts conduct inspections on the aircraft every 180 calendar days. During this six-day inspection , other scheduled maintenance inspections are completed in tandem to help maximize aircraft availability. So far, Strike 21 has identified more than 155 faulty cable segments -- finds that if gone unnoticed, would have lowered the receiving and jammer system capabilities, potentially putting pilots in danger.

"Being the nature of EW, the system could not work and you wouldn't know it," Sergeant Robinson said. "And for our aircrew, having a false sense of security is worse than having no sense of security at all."

Tech. Sgt. Brian White, Strike 21 technician for the 366th EMS, said the 366th Fighter Wing Combat Shield and Electronic Warfare Assessment Program annual scores have shown dramatic improvement since Strike 21 started.

"Strike 21 has been able to improve the reliability of Tactical Electronic Warfare Systems on our aircraft," Sergeant White said. "This translates into a more reliable system for our aircrews to train and deploy with."

The EW assessment scores are a subset of the measuring stick used by senior Air Force and DOD leadership to determine a fighter wing's combat capability. Sergeant White said as a 2defensive system, maintenance and care of TEWS directly impacts a fighter wing's ability to conduct air operations in contested airspace anywhere in the world.

"Personally, I believe this is a best practice within the Air Force," he said. "We are providing our aircrews with the best maintained TEWS in the Air Force. Coupled with all the outstanding maintenance and support provided throughout this wing, our Strike Eagles and aircrews are the tip of our nation's spear."