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Document created: 1 March 05
Air & Space Power Journal - Spring 2005

PIREP

AFSOC Logistics

Quiet Professionals Supporting the War Fighter

Maj Lisa A. Ulshoffer, USAF*
Capt Andrew S. Young, USAF
SMSgt William Nivison, USAF
MSgt Dean J. George, USAF

Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is famed for its combat capabilities, but the command’s indispensable logistical underpinnings are less well known. AFSOC logisticians overcome numerous challenges to support war fighters at home and in the field. Performing a wide spectrum of functions, including aircraft maintenance, contracting, deployment planning, transportation, and supply, these specialists may not eat snakes, but they can certainly find them!

Aircraft Maintenance Challenges

The Air Force has concerns about the health of its aging aircraft fleet. In fact, fleet-management issues were at least partially responsible for our recent wing reorganizations. AFSOC, which has particular interest in maintaining low-density/high-demand (LD/HD) assets, constantly seeks to answer the question “How do we accomplish seemingly infinite missions with these extremely finite resources?” The crux of the command’s maintenance-management dilemma lies in balancing two competing issues: (1) improving the health and capabilities of our aircraft to assure their readiness for the next several decades and (2) simultaneously maximizing aircraft availability for ever-growing mission requirements.

The challenge for AFSOC is akin to the one that confronts a family of five that must use one car (the same car) for the next 40 years. The situation isn’t so bad when the children are young and the car is new, but as it gets older and as jobs, schools, and extracurricular activities multiply, management of the family vehicle becomes virtually impossible. From a maintenance-management perspective, AFSOC has experienced unique challenges. Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, heavy demands placed on AFSOC’s fleet of special operations forces (SOF) aircraft to meet the demands of the global war on terror (GWOT) have adversely affected ongoing commitments such as periodic depot maintenance (PDM) inputs, aircraft upgrades and modifications, scheduled maintenance requirements, and operational taskings.

In September 2001, AFSOC possessed 109 aircraft but has since lost 10 specialized platforms due to battle damage or crashes—an overall loss rate of over 9 percent. But losses have not occurred uniformly across all aircraft types. The MH-53 (Pave Low) fleet has suffered a 21 percent loss and the MC-130H (Talon II) fleet 13 percent, but the MC-130P (Combat Shadow) fleet has incurred losses of only 5 percent.¹ SOF platforms have maintained mission commitments since 9/11, but at a price. Aircraft mission-capable rates have fallen 9 percent, partly due to unscheduled maintenance. Additionally, aircraft nonavailability has crept up from 19 to 25 aircraft annually due to increased PDM requirements, repairs to battle-damaged aircraft, and aircraft modifications. In contrast, the overall mission-capable rate for the Air Force fleet has remained stable while aircraft nonavailability has actually improved by 3 percent. The bottom line is that AFSOC continually faces a challenge to produce mission-capable aircraft to meet global commitments and training requirements. Since 9/11, every tail number but one from our specialized airpower fleet has deployed for combat operations and theater taskings in support of the GWOT.

Like the rest of the Air Force, AFSOC reacted to the increased operations tempo brought about by the GWOT. Since 9/11, SOF aircraft have consistently flown more hours per month (55) on each available aircraft than the Air Force average of 48 for similar basic platforms. Of the 134,461 SOF hours flown, 46 percent (61,774) have directly supported combat/contingency operations. The heavier utilization of a smaller fleet has accelerated scheduled inspection flows, required additional maintenance for aircraft reconstitution, increased demands on parts procurement, and created bottlenecks in PDM inputs.

Returning to our automobile analogy, the only way to take care of the car so it runs for the next 40 years is to use careful scheduling to meet all of the growing family’s demands. Since every AFSOC airplane is LD/HD, the goal of managing our aircraft fleet is simple: keep as many planes on the ramp and mission ready as possible! Fortunately, we believe that AFSOC’s entire logistics team is doing yeoman’s work to ensure that the command has aircraft available to meet its many taskings.

Management of “nonpossessed” aircraft (those in PDM or undergoing modification) remains a major focus area for the AFSOC logistics community. The command’s director of operations determines, by model, the maximum number of nonpossessed aircraft allowable at any one time, thus assuring the most airframes available for operational taskings. In order that each aircraft spend the minimum amount of time in PDM, logistics personnel and the depot communicate with each other constantly. Scheduling each aircraft’s PDM input begins months or years in advance. Additionally, logisticians continually track aircraft status throughout the PDM process to make certain that they meet output dates or make schedule changes for the next aircraft flowing into PDM.

At the same time the logistics community schedules aircraft for PDM, it schedules others for modification. In order to reduce the number of aircraft nonpossessed for modification, weapons-systems managers ensure that we combine several such requirements at one time, in one location, and on one aircraft. This process maximizes the number of aircraft available to meet mission taskings while accommodating the necessary modifications.

AFSOC’s logistics community also manages its LD/HD fleet by deploying only mission-ready aircraft that can remain in the area of responsibility (AOR) for an extended duration without scheduled maintenance coming due. This practice helps reduce the time spent ferrying aircraft to and from deployed locations and improves aircraft availability. This process depends upon focused maintenance management at all levels. AFSOC weapons-system functional managers, the maintenance community in each group and wing, and unit-level maintainers scrutinize each aircraft’s needs prior to deployment and immediately upon its return, at which time all possible major maintenance is completed. Maintenance groups and individual maintenance units make every effort to rotate AFSOC C-130s back from deployment just prior to their next scheduled major inspection. Airmen and contractors working side by side then perform the inspection and reconstitution concurrently, keeping each C-130’s downtime to an absolute minimum. Additionally, when an MH-53 returns from deployment, a contract depot field team completes on-condition maintenance tasks (depot-level maintenance work). The unit’s Airmen then immediately begin the major inspection. Conducting these two major events back to back enables AFSOC to complete the required MH-53 maintenance in minimum time. Finally, each maintenance unit conducts a thorough test of all aircraft systems to ensure that fully mission-capable platforms move forward once again to the AOR.

Engine management constitutes another critical component of AFSOC maintenance. The command manages five different T56 engine variations to support its fleet of SOF and combat search and rescue (CSAR) C-130s. To alleviate the extensive logistics requirement created by the multiple configurations, by fiscal year 2008 AFSOC will have converted its AC-130H (Spectre), AC-130U (Spooky), MC-130E (Talon I), MC-130H (Talon II), and MC-130P (Combat Shadow) aircraft to a common configuration capable of sustaining its SOF fleet with a single engine variant.² The commonality of spares will reduce the logistics signature and enhance deployed operations. The command is pursuing a similar initiative with respect to its CSAR HC-130P (King) aircraft.³

As the lead major command for the HH-60G (Pave Hawk), AFSOC is beginning work on improvements to engine performance in response to mission needs. Aircrews have mandated a 5 percent increase in engine and aircraft torque factors due to aircraft weight, combat configuration, and operating altitudes as justification for increasing the performance minimums.⁴ This adjustment has adversely affected the attrition rate of the T701C engine. Both Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center (WR-ALC) and AFSOC have joined forces in a sustaining engineering effort to balance aircraft performance and combat mission requirements. AFSOC is currently working with the Corpus Christi Army Depot to evaluate a T701D engine configuration that would boost engine horsepower output by 5 percent while increasing time-on-wing threefold over the performance of the current T701C configuration. This initiative is crucial to sustaining CSAR capabilities until the Personnel Recovery Vehicle replaces the HH-60.

Through stringent management at each level of maintenance and the consolidation of maintenance efforts and processes, the AFSOC logistics community successfully manages the command’s aircraft fleet and keeps the maximum number of mission-ready airframes on the ramp. When the call comes, the aircraft are ready to get into the fight—but sometimes we can’t take everything we need with us or get it through the supply system. That’s when our contracting experts step in.

Contracting

By their very nature, SOF units deploy to extremely austere locations, many times at the very end of logistical supply lines. AFSOC contingency contracting officers (CCO) fill the gap, providing continued direct support to special operators. The list ranges from conducting routine tasks (purchasing fuel, securing landing rights, and leasing land and facilities) to devising innovative solutions to difficult problems. For example, when a need existed for critical radio equipment but routine resupply could not provide the item in the time required, an AFSOC CCO contacted the manufacturer directly, purchased the item, arranged express-mail delivery to the theater, and helicopter support within the theater. The customer got what he needed within three weeks.

Although base operating support remains a theater responsibility, AFSOC’s CCOs are sometimes in-place ahead of their counterparts in either the Air Force or the other services. Thus, their contracts, agreements, and vendor information form the cornerstone for service support of follow-on forces. For CCOs, no job is too large or too small. They satisfy all requirements from extending runways to purchasing flags to denote coalition support forces, accomplishing everything within federal, Department of Defense (DOD), and service procurement regulations as well as financial rules. These officers have become a highly prized force-multiplier, providing base operating support and ensuring that all SOF units get what they need to achieve mission success.

Deployment Planning

The uniqueness of AFSOC’s weapons systems creates interesting deployment challenges, especially with respect to the GWOT. Such systems require specialized support equipment and munitions uncommon in the Air Force. Consequently, with the exception of the support of some generic C-130 airframe spares, few logistical advantages result from deploying AFSOC units to locations that already contain similar platforms. In addition, because of the operational requirement of great flexibility in basing SOF platforms, little or no pre-positioning exists. These factors restrict the tailoring of units for deployment. Thus, AFSOC units tend to deploy with most of their equipment and personnel most of the time.

Because AFSOC has low numbers of specialized LD/HD assets based at several different locations, units frequently deploy small amounts of cargo and personnel to sustain the operation over time, so logisticians must come up with innovative—sometimes complex—transportation solutions. We often deal with shipments too large for express carriers, too time-sensitive for channel air, yet too small to warrant a special-assignment airlift mission. In these cases, we have to wait until we have enough requirements to justify airlift (which delays getting assets to our war fighters), or, more commonly, we search for other shipments with which we can aggregate our cargo. We normally choose the latter option, when available, to minimize the time it takes us to move assets into the theater. Our planners and controllers at the logistics readiness center have become experts at searching the Global Decision Support System to find an airlift mission going where we need it to go and then coordinating to move our cargo to the mission point of origin in time to make the flight. After assets arrive in-theater, supply experts distribute them to the war fighters.

Supply:
“For the Want of a Nail. . . .”

We logisticians must manage supplies and spares carefully to prevent failure of a mission due to a small yet critical part. Since our -special-operations fleets are smaller than conventional combat forces and military-airlift forces, daily hands-on management of critical spares is absolutely essential. Fortunately, our fleets enjoy superb support from most sources of supply. For example, AFSOC benefits from special contingency codes that prevent our mobility readiness support packages from dropping to unacceptable on-hand levels. Moreover, these codes allow us to meet our varied and frequent missions worldwide without fear of missing one due to lack of supply support. Additionally, AFSOC logisticians enjoy an outstanding rapport with their counterparts who work in the WR-ALC’s Special Operations Forces Directorate. A small cadre of personnel there operates the Commando Control Center, providing daily real-time status on parts movement for critical items.

Although we’ve enjoyed good support from our suppliers, the fact that AFSOC aircraft fleets are LD/HD assets creates substantial challenges. Fixing a non-mission-capable airframe is our number-one priority. We can’t afford to let an LD/HD airplane remain grounded while the part it needs sits in a warehouse or goes to the wrong destination. Clearly, we must assign the highest transportation priority to parts supporting LD/HD assets to guarantee that they move by the most expeditious means possible; furthermore, we must maintain in-transit visibility to provide logistics personnel the information they need to make timely maintenance decisions.

The truism that small fleet size usually equates to a small number of spare parts represents one of the most daunting supply issues facing AFSOC logisticians. War fighters also place heavy demands on our weapons systems by flying longer sorties, often under combat conditions. With aircraft deployed, commanders closely monitor and direct movement of their few spare parts so that we minimize adverse effects to real-world missions. Traditional materiel-management systems generally prove effective, but our hands-on approach gives us an added measure of positive control needed to meet AFSOC mission requirements.

The fact that we have an LD/HD fleet, together with the inherent uniqueness of our weapons systems (particularly in the avionics arena), means that many spare parts fall under a three-level maintenance concept. That is, we sometimes position a small, second level of maintenance capability forward to immediately repair selected, specialized mission equipment. During Operation Enduring Freedom and the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, our logisticians closely monitored resupply for approximately 50 line items deemed “showstoppers” in the AOR. By tracking these items daily/routinely, AFSOC convinced Air Staff Logistics to deploy single, modular units to enhance repair in the area. The Air Staff supported this effort by approving a contingency readiness spares package to support the maintenance effort, deemed a true success.

Because fleet-modernization efforts can also present substantial challenges to meeting spare-parts requirements, we team with suppliers and maintainers to modify common assets—those shared with other weapons systems—to make them SOF specific. On the one hand, we benefit by having some measure of commonality even though the components have been modified to meet AFSOC needs. On the other hand, we create logistics constraints because we have components that are peculiar to a particular platform. Additionally, the fact that some supply vendors no longer exist complicates maintenance of our aging aircraft, particularly the MH-53M. In essence, this airframe has outlasted the numerous component and subcomponent vendors. Moreover, we might need only one of something that may be obsolete, but it is not cost-effective for vendors to start up production lines for small quantities.

The challenges of fleet modernization and obsolescence require unique solutions. Our weapons-systems managers work hand in hand with their maintenance counterparts, the WR-ALC’s item managers, and equipment specialists to make certain that new modernization initiatives have supply support prior to installation of the modified asset. The ready availability of spares means that our weapons systems can meet mission requirements upon completion of the modification. After installation of the modified asset, our weapons-system managers notify all users of the new item’s stock number and the correct substitute relationship between weapons systems and load authorizations in the applicable spares packages. In the case of obsolescence, our managers work with the item managers, equipment specialists, and engineers to determine if an asset is a candidate either for reengineering or for replacement with a commercial off-the-shelf item.

The AFSOC LD/HD fleet will continue to face supply challenges. The many different weapons systems and constant modifications will create a need for top-notch, hands-on management of the aircraft fleet. AFSOC logistics personnel stand ready to meet these challenges.

The Way Ahead

One can see from the myriad issues facing AFSOC that the family car is stretched pretty thin; however, AFSOC logisticians have proven equal to the challenge and are exploring a number of initiatives to propel the command into the future. In the sustaining-engineering arena, AFSOC has teamed with many outside organizations to improve the maintenance and reliability of our aircraft. For example, AFSOC has partnered with Air Mobility Command and the WR-ALC in research and development of an active, in-flight balancing system for the C-130 propeller. Proposed as an aging-aircraft initiative, this system—which balances the propeller in flight, regardless of the engine’s power setting or flight condition—transposes an industrial technology to the aviation community. Two successful tests—an engine test-cell run and an in-flight test demonstration—resulted in a tenfold reduction in propeller-vibration levels. If proven reliable, this system will replace the current manual process, which balances the propeller by adding weights. The next phase of the program, expected to yield a three-to-one return on investment, includes sustained, long-term testing. The benefits to our C-130s include a substantial reduction in aircraft and propulsion stressors resulting from propeller imbalance.

Under current plans, we will completely retire our MH-53 fleet by fiscal year 2012. As we draw down the Pave Lows, we will ramp up the CV-22 program within the command. AFSOC logisticians are deeply involved and engaged in determining the best method to support and sustain this new platform as it enters our inventory. Although the program office for the V-22 falls under the Navy, our challenge lies in finding the right balance for both DOD and contractor support and sustainment.

In the supply world, Web-based data systems increase visibility, allow real-time access, and facilitate the procurement of assets. Such systems include the Defense Logistic Agency’s Web Customer Account Tracking System and Air Force Materiel Command’s Weapon System Management Information System and Automated Stock Control System, all of which allow greater visibility of available procurable items, contracts, and spares in work. In the case of assets not available through normal supply channels, we use commercial services such as the Inventory Locator Service and Parts Base to locate items with long estimated delivery dates at commercial vendors. Along with the Web-based tools that the regional supply squadron uses for sourcing and movement, our customers can have full access to mission capable (MICAP) sourcing and movement data through the new Web-based MICAP Asset Sourcing System, now available to all users through the Air Force Portal. To deal with an increasing number of supply-specific challenges, we are utilizing unique procurement processes to move mission-critical items to the flight line anytime and anyplace, to let our maintainers do what they do best.

The list of initiatives goes on and on, all directed toward finding new and improved ways to ensure that our fleet can meet the challenges and taskings that lie ahead. Whatever the task, AFSOC’s logisticians will find a way to bring snakes to the snake eaters.

Conclusion

The logisticians of Air Force Special Operations Command offer key services to the war fighter. Maintenance, contracting, deployment planning, transportation, and supply all interact in an elaborate ballet to ensure that the command’s warriors have the right tool at the right time. Our forces have deployed continuously for the past three years. Although no one can predict the future, we have postured ourselves to provide world-class logistics support to the war fighter for the long haul. Before the first shot is fired, logistics determines the outcome of the war!

*Major Ulshoffer is chief of the Weapons System Support Branch, Captain Young is chief of the Rotary Wing Section, Sergeant Nivison is superintendent of the War Plans Branch, and Sergeant George is superintendent of Logistics Automation, Headquarters Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Florida.

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Notes

1. The Pave Low’s mission is low-level, long-range, undetected penetration into denied areas—day or night, in adverse weather—for infiltration, exfiltration, and resupply of SOF units. The MC-130E Combat Talon I and MC-130H Combat Talon II provide infiltration, exfiltration, and resupply of these forces and equipment in hostile or denied territory. Secondary missions include psychological operations and helicopter air refueling. The Combat Shadow flies clandestine or low-visibility, single-ship or multiship, low-level missions that enter sensitive or hostile territory to provide air refueling for special-operations helicopters. The MC-130P flies missions primarily at night to reduce the probability of visual acquisition and intercept by airborne threats. Secondary mission capabilities may include the airdrop of leaflets, small special-operations teams, bundles, and rubber raiding craft, as well as night vision goggles, takeoff and landing procedures, and in-flight refueling as a receiver.

2. The primary missions of the AC-130H/U gunships are close air support, air interdiction, and force protection. Close air support missions include troops in contact, convoy escort, and urban operations. Air interdiction missions involve preplanned targets or targets of opportunity. Force protection missions include defense of air bases and facilities. The MC-130E Combat Talon I and MC-130H Combat Talon II provide infiltration, exfiltration, and resupply of SOF units and equipment in hostile or denied territory. Secondary missions include psychological operations and helicopter air refueling.

3. The mission of the HC-130P/N—an extended-range CSAR version of the C-130 Hercules transport—entails extending the range of CSAR helicopters by providing air refueling in hostile or contested airspace if required.

4. The primary mission of the HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter calls for conducting day or night operations into hostile environments to recover downed aircrews or other isolated personnel during war. Because of its versatility, the HH-60G can also perform military operations other than war, including such tasks as civil search and rescue, emergency aeromedical evacuation, disaster relief, international aid, counterdrug activities, and support of the NASA space shuttle.

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Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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