In a sharp departure from historic workload assignments, the Air Force and the Defense Department have decided to award Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and Hill Air Force Base, Utah, with most depot maintenance tasks on the Predator and Reaper UAVs. The Oklahoma and Utah bases along with Robins comprise the Air Force's three maintenance depots.
Robins officials confirmed that Tinker AFB will accomplish depot engine maintenance on the two unmanned aircraft and Hill AFB will cover the airframe and subsystems typically worked at Robins. How the UAV workload will build over time is unclear, although the Air Force will buy more unmanned than manned weapon systems this year and, for the first time in its history, will train more UAV pilots than manned operators for fighters and bombers.
The Hill package includes airframe overhaul -- a workload the Air Force typically co-locates with the program management site -- along with electronics, communications and avionics. The electronics, communications and avionics assignments are particularly surprising since Robins is the Air Force center of excellence for those work categories.
Col. Cheryl Allen, 560th Aircraft Sustainment Wing commander at Robins, said local officials do not participate in the workload decision process except to prepare required information packages.
"The Air Force does its review, decides which of its depots should get some type of workload, then sends its recommendations to the Defense Department," Allen stressed.
The Predator and Reaper assignments became a front-page news item last April -- and a source of temporary embarrassment for the Air Force and Defense Department --when Utah's congressional delegation announced that Hill AFB had been awarded the bulk of the workload for the two UAVs.
In a news release that proved to be correct, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Hill was "getting in on the ground floor and will be a leader in UAV depot maintenance." He added that the Air Force decision was due to the "highly capable and efficient" workforce at the Utah site. Air Force quickly rebutted the announcement, claiming the Hatch statement "was in error."
Workload for the third Air Force UAV, the Global Hawk, is somewhat brighter. Robins has been assigned the electronics, communications, actuator and some black box duties. It has also been nominated by the Air Force for coverage of avionics, the fuel system and systems integration. The results from a pending structural integrity program will determine if depot coverage of the airframe is needed.
"So we have a pretty good share of the workload on Global Hawk," Allen noted. "We don't have anything to complain about even if we wanted to."
The major consolation is that Robins will become the worldwide program manager for all three systems once that responsibility transitions from the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Allen already employs about 40 in the sustainment function for the three UAVs -- 20 for Global Hawk and 20 split between Reaper and Predator.
"Global Hawk already looks to us for supply support and sustainment," she said. "Predator and Reaper are not that far along. But any time you have program management responsibility, that's a good thing for the center."
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