Shaking Things Up

Air Force Times | July 8, 2002 | Bruce Rolfsen

[Stand Watch Listen]

Chief of staff hopes reorganization boosts capability, fosters more skilled mission-support groups

By Bruce Rolfsen, Times staff writer

A shift in priorities and aging aircraft forced the service to reorganize its wings — and Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper is confident his Air Force will emerge stronger than ever.

"Our focus in the U.S. Air Force is not on our home base training operations but on making sure that we give the proper support to thousands that we have deployed in contingency operations," Jumper said in an interview with Air Force Times.

"That’s what we need to organize ourselves for and that’s where we need to focus of our activity."

The reorganization, known as the Chief’s Logistics Review, was announced in April and is scheduled to be in place by Oct. 1. Its three main facets are:

** Aircraft-repair duties will be the responsibility of new maintenance groups.

** Operations groups will focus on flying skills.

** Support squadrons such as civil engineering, aerial port, communications, security forces and services — all the skills needed to run a base built from scratch — will be under new mission-support groups. Also part of the new group will be a combined supply and transportation unit called the logistics readiness squadron.

The Chief’s Logistics Review began under Jumper’s predecessor, now-retired Gen. Mike Ryan.

Boosts in mission-capability

By having veteran maintainers in charge of aircraft care, Jumper expects to see a long-term rise in mission-capable rates. The Air Force won’t specify a target number.

"We looked back at the difference between how we entered Desert Storm and how we entered Allied Force — with 92 mission-capable rates versus 72 MC rates," Jumper said.

The mission-capable rate so far for fiscal 2002 is 75.7 percent, according to Air Force figures.

A cut in dollars for spare parts and the extra care needed for aging planes caused some of the fall in aircraft readiness, but leaders also thought that not enough attention was being shown to overall maintenance concerns, Jumper said.

The chief doesn’t fault the performance of operations group commanders who were responsible for maintenance.

"There is no lack of effort on the part of our great ops group commanders working this problem," Jumper said. "But we don’t train them to work this problem and it is a profound problem the older the airplanes get."

Jumper emphasized that the flying squadrons will have a close relationship with crew chiefs and other maintainers.

"The fact is each flying squadron still has dedicated maintenance," Jumper said. "The red tail squadron of airplanes will still have red tail maintenance. ... It is just that the maintenance flight that works in that squadron will report to the guy who has been maintaining airplanes for 24 years that commands the maintenance group."

The change also should open more command positions to maintenance officers. "We hope to see people who feel rewarded for a career in maintenance. ... We hope that the young maintenance officers in the wing can now look up to somebody that they can be. Right now they look up to their boss [a rated officer] and they can’t be the ops group commander."

Better prepared for war

The changes also were prompted by the need to improve how the Air Force deploys.

Enduring Freedom required the Air Force to open 13 bases from scratch. The task demonstrated the need for mission-support groups that encompass all the skills required to run a base and to have those skills organized in teams that can deploy on short notice, Jumper said.

And wing commanders are on notice that every airman they send with an air expeditionary force must be prepared.

Putting crew chiefs and others under a maintenance group also will allow operations group leadership to focus on air combat skills.

"I expect the ops group commander to be the role-model operator for everyone in that group. I expect squadron commanders to be prepared to lead their squadrons into combat the first day of the war," Jumper said.

And what incoming commanders haven’t learned from talking with maintenance crews they’ll learn at a "rigorous" new course that will help squadron leaders balance the health of the fleet and sortie production.

The formal maintenance training will last "weeks and not days," the general said.

The course, which still is to be named, will be taught in two phases, according to outlines. Air Education and Training Command will teach officers about issues common to all airframes. Then, the incoming commanders will get instruction specific to their airframe and major command.

Course topics will include fleet health, metrics review, enlisted skills development and work force management.

The course should be in place for squadron commanders who take their jobs in 2003.

Jumper expected there still will be plenty of ad hoc teaching between pilots and maintainers — the same as he had coming up through the ranks flying F-15 Eagles.

"That’s who taught me about maintenance — the guy who had been doing it for 24 years," Jumper recalled. "The guy who, when you rode around with him on the truck on the flight line, could spot from two rows away the most minor deviation in sound-maintenance practices."

Mission-support group commanders will get specialized training of their own at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J.

Jumper compared the course to the Weapons School classes that focus on combat skills.

The new course is being built on the foundation of the Air Mobility Warfare Center’s Phoenix Readiness program that prepares support teams for deployed operations. The course also will incorporate the Silver Flag deployment-training exercises staged at several bases.

A start date for the course is to be announced.

"We will provide for them formal training in combat mission support just as we provide formal training to the pilots in Red Flag. We will have a place for them to go exercise and plan and practice these skills before they deploy."

Jumper understands that he is ordering the Air Force to change out of a decade-old system at the same time the service continues to support deployments in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, the Balkans and the Philippines.

"With the world situation in the last several years, we probably couldn’t have picked a good time to have done this. But as the airplanes get older and you put increasing stress on the fleet, I think it’s going to be important to start building this expertise sooner rather than later."

In past years, there were some wing commanders who didn’t focus enough on the link between maintenance and flying, Jumper said. The commander won’t let that happen on his watch.

"When I moved over to U.S. Air Forces in Europe [in 1997], I asked how many commanders were going over to standup [meetings] every day. None of them were. I told them, ‘If you’ve got something more important to do at three o’clock every afternoon than go to the meeting that is about one of the most important things you do — fly and fix airplanes — then give me a call because whatever is more important, then I need to be there.’ "