Robins returns gunship to battle in record time

The war on terrorism is getting a boost from the efficiency of maintenance workers at Robins Air Force Base.

Friday, crews prepared to send off an AC-130U gunship after a record maintenance stop.

"It typically takes 181 days to do this work package on this aircraft," said Jim Russell, director of the 560th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. "But because our customer asked us to accelerate due to the fact they need more aircraft in the field, we actually worked this airplane and were able to produce it in 100 days, which is a world record here for Warner Robins. "

For every day a plane is in the shop, it is out of commission for nightly missions in Middle Eastern combat zones.

In February 2009, Robins workers turned around another plane in 128 days.

"We beat our record by 28 days, but we also beat the customer requirement by 52 days," Russell said as crews made final checks on the plane out on the flight line Friday morning.

When the gunship flew into Robins Air Force Base on Oct. 23, workers were waiting.

"We hit it as soon as it touched down," said Jake Dickson, flight chief of the C-130 Air Force Special Operations Command Acceleration Plan. "Everyone was on site 15 minutes before their task was ready for execution. So everyone was in place and ready to go."

Michael Smith, the production team lead, said his job is to remove hurdles for the workers.

Parts had to be in place to skirt delays.

They shot for an internal target of 97 days in the shop even working around holiday schedules.

"We brought all our mechanics together in a room, so it's not a management-driven thing. It's an employee buy-in," Smith said. "We came up with a plan and our guys executed."

They stripped the paint, reworked the fuel tanks, removed the gun booths, checked avionics and performed extensive maintenance repairs.

"Bear in mind this airplane has been flying five years since the last PDM (programmed depot maintenance), so it had a lot of structural issues. It had a lot of metal bond issues that we had to work through," Russell said.

In the continual churn of defense budgeting, the quick turnaround time could boost business and help secure the future of Robins.

"There's 536 C-130s out there in the Air Force inventory, so by proving that we can take this work on and actually do it quicker and do it safely and do it in a quality fashion, we're actually building capacity to bring on additional airplanes out there that need this type of work," Russell said.

The plane will soon be back at Hurlburt Field in Florida and resume its mission.

Crews are already on the fast track with five more aircraft awaiting accelerated maintenance: three MC-130H Combat Talons and two more C-130s.

"I'm excited," Dickson said. "This shows the benefits and gains from a well-informed, choreographed team. Synchronization was key."

Smith reiterated that the record-breaking task was a team effort.

"It makes you proud to stand by the mechanics and watch this thing take off in 100 days and share it with their joy," he said. "And stepping up and supporting our troops."

To contact writer Liz Fabian, call 744-4303 and follow her on Twitter@liz_lines.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Robins returns gunship to battle in record time ."