McChord Product Improvement team does away with redundant inspection of C-17 antenna

by Staff Sgt. Russ Jackson
62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

6/4/2014 - JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Each and every C-17 Globemaster III assigned to the fleet is equipped with an ultra-high frequency satellite antenna offering air crews access to speech communication channels via satellite link.

When these antennas need to be replaced, it is not an inexpensive fix.

Recently, a McChord maintenance Airman noticed their unit was replacing a significant amount of these antennas because they were failing a very strict manufacturer's inspection. However, the antennas were not being identified by the air crews as being defective in any way. They were completely functional except for the fact they were failing this single inspection that had these tight parameters.

"The verbage of the technical order states that if the antenna fails this inspection, then it must be replaced," said Tech. Sgt. Joshua Taylor, 62nd Maintenance Squadron engineering and logistics liaison. "Up to this point, there was no way around replacing them and it is the only time these antennas were failing that we knew of."

The issue was brought to the attention of McChord's product improvement section in hopes they could remove this redundant inspection from the home station check.

First, Taylor had to ensure that it would be safe to discontinue such an inspection. Then, he conferred with engineers from Boeing before presenting the issue to Air Mobility Command.

Taylor illustrated to AMC how much money McChord was spending on the replacement antennas, and the amount of time it was taking maintainers to make the repairs. Taylor felt that after the antennas passed their initial manufacturer inspection, they could be safely operated without being held to that same standard any longer. AMC concurred with that assessment and authorized the removal of the costly inspection from the home station checklist fleet wide.

When McChord's product improvement section brought this issue to light, it had an immediate impact on the C-17 fleet worldwide and the Air Force's budget.

These antennas cost $8,000 per unit and in the past year, McChord maintainers have changed no less than 40 of them, amounting to $320,000.

"The total historical money amount we have spent fleet wide changing these antennas is $7.5 million," said Tech. Sgt. Joseph Bilger, 62nd Maintenance Squadron product improvement manager.

After AMC granted the approval to remove the inspection from home station checks, Bilger drafted up a technical order change and routed it to engineers at Robins Air Force Base. Once it passed a technical order review board, the changes became official and Bilger personally informed the maintainers who brought the issue to the attention of his office.

Now, the satellite communication antennas must pass the rigorous inspection only when they leave the manufacturer.

C-17 maintainers will put the antennas through other inspections and air crews will still let them know if they are having issues during flight.

Thanks to the 62nd Maintenance Group maintainers and the product improvement section, these perfectly functional antennas will remain on the aircraft until they are in need of real repair.