Air Force to save $336M with regionalized maintenance centers

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Travis Edwards
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  The Air Force has implemented a plan to streamline the maintenance of all Air Force air traffic control and landing systems around the globe, saving the Air Force an estimated $336 million by 2025.

On March 9, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, in cooperation with the 1st Communications Maintenance Squadron, cut the ribbon to the USAFE ATCALS regional maintenance center on Kapaun Air Station, signifying the start of the multi-million dollar savings plan.

"Most of the systems in USAFE (and Air Force) have outlived their life expectancy and are becoming harder to maintain," said Master Sgt. Donald Sheppard, USAFE RMC chief. "The Air Force Flight Standard Agency will purchase new remote instrument landing systems to replace these legacy systems, which will allow RMCs to perform remote maintenance."

AFFSA is the agency leading the maintenance and oversight for the systems and provides funding for the three RMCs throughout the Air Force; one in the United States and two overseas, which includes the one at Kapaun.

The new systems are able to be dialed into from the RMCs to show whether the system is up and running, offline or in need of maintenance.

"If a system goes down at a base, their systems will dial into ours and alert us of the change in real time," said Master Sgt. Brian Capps, USAFE RMC NCO in charge of airfield systems. "If that happens and we get an alarm, we will be ready to troubleshoot it remotely and if need be, have a team on their way out to that base in 48 hours."

Concurrently, the RMCs have a response time of 30 minutes during normal duty hours, and one hour during non-duty hours.

With the addition of the regionalized maintenance center, each base will maintain an appropriate number of ATCALS maintenance personnel at the bases with older legacy systems that require hands-on maintenance.


Bases around USAFE are scheduled to receive 13 remote tactical air navigation systems, one remote, very-high frequency, omni-directional range system, and 13 instrument landing systems by 2017.

"The RMC will bring with it the opportunity to leverage cyberspace -- to remotely monitor and maintain the new systems right here from Kapaun," said Maj. Angela Freeman, 1st CMXS commander. "Our guys are the best of the best, they are chosen for their position here, it's a special duty assignment, and to have that kind of experience at this RMC will be invaluable."

AFFSA is also in the process of finalizing the continental United States RMC in Oklahoma City, Okla., and the Pacific Air Forces' RMC at Yokota AB, Japan.