Innovation by air traffic control tower team saves money

by Staff Sgt. Zachary Wolf
65th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

9/29/2014 - LAJES FIELD, Azores, Portugal -- Coming together is something the Air Force takes pride in. Especially, when coming together promotes innovation and saves money. The Lajes Field air traffic control tower did just that when a new radar was installed in December of 2013. With that new radar, the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System or STARS would be coming too. And for that update, things would need to be changed.

"We looked at how much it will be to purchase, install and get this room set up appropriately," said Tech. Sgt. Ryan Headrick, 65th Operations Support Squadron noncommissioned officer in charge of airfield automation.

This wasn't the first time Headrick had dealt with setting up a STARS system.

"I have been a part of the planning process of facilities before and once we pulled up the floor tiles and looked underneath, looked at our manpower, talked with maintenance, talked to (the Civil Engineer Squadron) and got a general feeling for what we could accomplish as a team," Headrick said. "We said we think we can accomplish this.'"

On average, system and installation could cost a base $170,000 to $200,000. Headrick and his team found out the consoles would cost them just under $40,000.
That's when the innovation kicked in.

They decided to start getting the place ready and worked extra hours doing so.
During the renovation process there was never any interruption in the service the air traffic controllers provided.

The Air Force saved another $5,000 to $7,000 by shipping all of the new equipment together and storing it on base. This also helped in the protection of the equipment.
"It was a lot of work with the project office," Headrick said.

STARS wasn't supposed to be online until December of 2014, but with the work the team put into it, the system was up and running in August.

The new system comes with many benefits, a main benefit will cut an air traffic controller's training time by 20 to 30 percent  because the training suite is the exact same as the operational equipment they use daily, so they aren't losing any familiarity.

"This system prepares them for 'forward, ready,now'" Headrick said. "We know that the next system is going to be this system. We are preparing them for their future as opposed to training them on the old system and then putting them into a completely new system downrange."

Being here also gives the Airmen an opportunity to work with the Portuguese Air Force air traffic controllers, which Headrick says is priceless training because they will be working with other countries when they deploy.

Overall, the work of Headrick and the people he worked with saved the Air Force nearly $200,000, but he believes that number could be much higher.

"We will save thousands of man-hours over the next decade by not having to spend time training controllers how to use outdated and antiquated equipment," Headrick said. "In today's Air Force time equals money."