Teamwork leads to innovative radar repair

by Airman 1st Class Luke Kitterman
52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

12/5/2014 - SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- Located approximately 50 feet above the ground is Spangdahlem's Digital Airport Surveillance Radar system which monitors the sky 24/7 to maintain air superiority. The feed from the radar is sent to the air traffic controllers and allows them see inclement weather conditions and guide the aircraft to safety.  A malfunction in this system could jeopardize base operations.

When a failure of the system did occur back in late September, the Spangdahlem radar mission was halted for 40 minutes. Airmen from multiple squadrons acted quickly and devoted numerous hours to ensure Spangdahlem continued to function as usual.

The frequency converter and the transformer were damaged, meaning that the radar equipment did not have a power source. The responsibility of providing emergency power to base equipment falls on the 52nd Civil Engineer Squadron electrical power production specialists.

"The 52nd CES was charged with multiple facets of this project," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. William Wilson, a 52nd CES electrical power production journeyman. "We replaced the faulty transformer and provided emergency generator power to the site for a total of eight weeks to ensure the DASR continued to support the Wing's mission."

However, it wasn't as simple as just plugging in a generator to keep things running.

"We provided a total of five generators," Wilson said. "It became apparent that the unit was not sized to supply the proper amount of power so we called our comrades over at the 52nd 606th Air Control Squadron. They expediently responded to our needs and brought us one of their mobile power plants. This helped us stable prime power until the site was returned to commercial power."

Once power was replaced with the generator, the repair mission did not stop there.

"When we are on standby generator power, we perform routine checks every two hours," said U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Justin Goodwin, a 52nd CES electrical power production journeyman. "This is to take readings and make sure everything is working appropriately. Sometimes we were out all night and day."

Constant checks and maintaining equipment proved to be more than a single squadron workload. The CES team shared the weight of the job with the 52nd Operations Support Squadron.

"The OSS guys helped us by taking our generator readings so we could continue our primary mission of supporting the bases emergency power generators," Wilson said. "The communication between the organizations was impeccable and made it possible to provide flawless support and zero downtime."

The team effort took a total of eight weeks with Airmen working around the clock to get the DASR system back on commercial power.

"There was never any griping or complaining about the hours," Wilson said. "There was a job to do and we did it without a second thought."

The team also created an innovative plan for future power outages. The Airmen who successfully repaired the DASR not only fixed an important piece of equipment but also improved on the existing system.

"This repair showed us a glaring oversight during the design of the DASR site," Wilson said. "With this information we have designed a way to setup one of these quick disconnects by using a double throw breaker off the old DASR building and renovating it to make connecting a mobile generator much easier and efficient, saving time and money in the process."