Equipment reconstitution program recovers valuable EOD assets

  • Published
  • By John Burt
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla --  After a decade of service, much of the life-saving Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal equipment is finding a new life of its own.

Thanks to a program spearheaded by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center here, the deployed equipment EOD Airmen have relied on to accomplish their dangerous mission in Southwest Asia is now being shipped back for reuse at home and for future deployments

In June 2012, AFCEC set up the EOD Equipment Management Facility at Hill AFB, Utah, as a clearinghouse for EOD tools and equipment being shipped back from locations throughout the world. At the EMF, a specialized team inspects, cleans and repairs the equipment before it is redistributed across the Air Force.

"We've already reutilized $2 million worth of equipment through the facility," said David Hodgson, EOD equipment reconstitution project manager for AFCEC's Readiness Directorate.

As items continue to flow in from Southwest Asia, the Air Force anticipates investing $9 million in the EOD equipment reconstitution program over the next three years. Hodgson believes they could see a return on investment as early as this year.

EOD equipment is typically deployed in containerized sets called unit type codes or UTCs. Each UTC is packaged for a specific mission.

"In total, the Air Force deployed around $80 million of equipment," said Eric Wass, EMF team leader at Hill. "This equipment was deployed in about 65 UTCs and also rapidly fielded to support urgent operational needs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over time, equipment has been pulled out of the containers and used in different configurations. At our facility, we can take that equipment, clean it, repair it and build the kits back up. We've got the time and the capability to do that where a typical EOD flight would not."

A key player in getting the shipments from deployed locations to the EMF, is Tech. Sgt. Kenneth Lewis, an EOD technician with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing in Southwest Asia.
 
"Our equipment has moved between many locations over the past 10 years and, in some cases, hasn't been tracked through the Air Force system," said Lewis. "We also have equipment scattered between EOD teams at Army and Marine forward operating bases."

Lewis had to educate himself in Air Force logistics terminology and procedures and work closely with the Air Force's logistics community.

"Sergeant Lewis has done a great job getting the shipments out," said Hodgson. "His predecessors did a lot of work packing the gear into Conex containers. Sergeant Lewis picked up the ball and worked to solve the shipping problems and now we've got lots of equipment coming back."

The returning shipments contain a gamut of EOD assets, including robots, bomb suits and radio equipment, as well as a few surprises.

"One thing that caught my eye is how many general purpose tools have come back," said Hodgson. "There are compressors, screwdrivers, hammers. We don't have a lot of that in our specialized UTCs, but these are tools used at every EOD flight."

Hodgson was able to furnish tools for the reconstitution facility from the returned items as well.

The EOD Equipment Depot, which maintains and manages inventories on specialized equipment such as robots, x-ray systems, remote firing devices and blasting machines is also located at Hill.

The depot typically has to contract equipment maintenance with outside vendors, but recently reached out to the EMF for help.

"They didn't have a repair contract to cover 84 inoperable MX-22 remote firing devices and we needed to get some of those back out to the field," said Hodgson. EOD Airmen use the MX-22 to remotely initiate demolition charges.

"The MX-22 kit comes with 10 receivers," explained Wass. "They're the component that's closer to the detonation, so they take a lot of abuse. When we're done, the kit is fully functional, checked out and apart from having a factory warranty, it's as good as you get."

Through this cooperation with the depot, the EMF was able to return to service 41 of the 84 kits, about $600,000 in Air Force assets.

"We reaped huge benefits there," said Hodgson. "We didn't have to find new kits or find someone else to do the work."

Currently, due to space limitations, the EMF must keep much of these assets in storage containers at different locations on base.

By August, the team expects to move to a larger building which Wass said will improve their efficiency and response time to customers.

"If an EOD flight needs a robot part, we'll be able to go to that shelf, retrieve it and get it out the same day," Wass said. The EMF is also creating an online inventory list to help EOD flights know what equipment is available.

The EOD preliminary course at Sheppard AFB, Texas, has already benefited from the reconstitution program. The course trains approximately 20 future EOD Airmen each week which means considerable wear and tear on equipment like protective bomb suits.
Tech. Sgt. Roger Hughes, NCO in charge, reached out to his AFCEC contact who told him about the EMF at Hill.

"We were able to get replacement suits in a week and a half at no additional cost and continue training without interruption," Hughes said. "It worked great for us."