Ground equipment maintains Stealth deterrence

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Cody H. Ramirez
  • 509th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  The B-2 stealth bomber is a dramatic leap in technology from traditional bombers that provide global deterrence and air power for the Air Force. With all its innovation and technological advances, the aircraft requires a dedicated ground support to keep it in the skies.

More than 90 men and women of the 509th Maintenance Squadron Aerospace Ground Equipment flight maintain equipment in support of the B-2 and other aircraft systems.

"Aircraft are dependent upon ground equipment support," said Master Sgt. Darryl T. Melton, production support superintendent. "Our Airmen supply and maintain more than 700 pieces of equipment, that without, the aircraft would never take flight."

To effectively divide work, the flight is split into four sections: service, pick-up and delivery; Air Teams 1 and 2; munitions; and production support.

Service, pick-up and delivery, or SPUDS for short, provides a service transport that picks-up and delivers all equipment to aircraft or units that need it. This allows maintenance crews to spend more time on maintaining the aircraft instead of the equipment.

Air Team 1 and 2 perform periodic inspections and maintenance, or scheduled and unscheduled work, on all AGE. Scheduled maintenance ensures equipment is up-to-date and can range from every 14 days to five years. Unscheduled maintenance is work needed on equipment through every-day wear and tear.

"We have anything from circuit cards to hydraulics, pneumatics, air conditioning and heating, high-volume air compressors, diesel engines, electrical and nitrogen generators," said Master Sgt. Greg A. Linn, AGE Team 1 supervisor. "We work on any type of mechanic, from heavy equipment to automobiles."

Parallel to Teams 1 and 2, MUNS AGE provides similar work on bomb lifts and munitions handling trailers.

On the support side of the unit, production support provides the maintenance sections with materials such as tools, chemicals, parts, pieces, filters and fluids.

Maintaining a vast amount of equipment requires a large amount of training.

Six months of technical school teaches the basics of generators, hydraulics, air compressors, bomb-lift equipment, diesel and turbine engines, electronics and air conditioning and heating. Once in the career field, numerous field training detachments are accessible for equipment specific courses. The course here is taught by a field training instructor who teaches AGE Airmen how to work on equipment specific to their shop and base - to include training on B-2-specific equipment.

"Anytime work is being done on the B-2, it's followed by a sea of AGE," Sergeant Linn said. "Any work done on the aircraft, other than minor maintenance, requires our equipment."

"The wide variety of equipment we get to work on is great," Sergeant Melton said. "It's never the same. One week you could be working on something and the next week it's completely different."

Through the proper division of work and training in an array of skills, the men and women of the AGE shop help place the 'bird' in the sky.