AFCEC presents future of airfield damage repair to PACAF leaders

  • Published
  • By John Burt
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Recently, airfield damage repair experts at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center took their expertise on the road.

"The modernized ADR capability will enable the Air Force to respond to today's threats," said Col. Doug Hardman, head of AFCEC's Readiness Directorate. "It gives commanders a modular and scalable tool to be able to recover an airfield after an attack and return it to service as quickly as possible."

For three weeks in March and April, Hardman led a team to the Pacific Air Forces region to discuss the future of the Air Force's ADR program. The trip was beneficial to AFCEC as well as their partners in the Pacific region, said Hardman. The group traveled to bases in Korea and Japan to meet with leaders from the Fifth and Seventh Air Forces, as well as PACAF base and group commanders. They also met with representatives from the Republic of Korea Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The goal of the trip was to present the new ADR capability, discuss training needs and develop plans to posture equipment and materials. PACAF members instrumental in the ADR development process also participated in the discussions.

"This was a great opportunity to update our PACAF units on the status of ADR and offer a timeline and critical path for fielding the capability," said David Lin, PACAF modernization chief.

ADR is replacing the Air Force's traditional rapid runway repair, or RRR.

"The legacy RRR focused on Cold War scenarios," said Capt. Ben Carlson, expeditionary engineering modernization branch chief. "It was about the ability to launch primarily fighter aircraft going short distances to carry out their mission. With ADR, we're looking to launch multi-frame aircraft like tankers, heavies and fighters off of the same repaired surfaces."

ADR takes advantage of state-of-the-art, commercially available equipment and materials, Carlson said, including rapid setting concrete that cures in hours instead of days.

"These materials, combined with newer equipment and improved techniques, will produce stronger, more durable repairs than previous methods," said Carlson. "We're looking at as many as 3,000 passes for aircraft over these repairs as opposed to 20 or 30 passes with the legacy repairs."

Although work on airfield surfaces is the job of Air Force pavement and equipment specialists, nicknamed "Dirt Boyz," ADR will rely on support from Air Force civil engineers not typically associated with pavement repairs. This brought up questions from numbered Air Force, PACAF and installation leaders on plans to train base personnel on the new ADR process.

"AFCEC is developing plans to incorporate ADR training into home-station training," said Capt. Kelly Mattie, chief of plans and programs in AFCEC's Readiness Directorate. "We'll also potentially incorporate it into contingency training programs."

While in the region, the AFCEC team took the opportunity to meet with engineers from the Republic of Korea Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force to strengthen partnerships and facilitate combined ADR training and research in the future.

"As these nations invest in this capability, it will increase our interoperability in the region," said Mattie. "Japan, for example, uses the legacy system that we have now. They're very good at it, but they're interested in modernizing as we modernize."

Members of AFCEC's Readiness Directorate will make similar visits to U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Central Command later this year.