HILL AIR FORCE BASE – Members of the 533rd Commodities Maintenance Squadron Local Manufacturing Flight have begun producing more than 100 different parts for the U.S. Navy to upgrade recently acquired F-16 C/D models into Top Gun aggressor aircraft.
A majority of the replacement parts are aluminum, steel, and stainless-steel fuel and hydraulic tubing but they’re also providing fittings, radius blocks, plates, angles and fillers manufactured from blueprints.
Kolter Donoviel, 533rd Commodities Maintenance Squadron planning chief, said the Navy wants to maintain their own fleet and they’re getting the necessary parts to do so.
Service Life Extension Program modifications on the F-16s that were transferred from multiple Air Force and Air National Guard sites will be done by USN civilians at the Fleet Readiness Center-Southwest located near San Diego.
“When (Naval technicians) pull panels off to work the bulkhead, they will be removing tons of fuel and hydraulic tubes and they’ll find damage,” Donoviel said. “We are supporting those components that have worn or were damaged as they do the SLEP modifications.”
Rick McCall, U. S. Navy F-16 Adversary Team Integrated Product lead said they chose F-16s that will replace some older Block 1 F-18 Rhinos, because they’re not familiar to the Top Gun pilots.
“The F-16s from the Air Force provide the USN adversary community an extremely capable platform, able to provide our Blue Forces a dissimilar airframe to train against,” he said. “Additionally, through close relationships with the USAF F-16 System Program Office, the USN will be able to provide future upgrades to these jets making them even more valuable as aggressor aircraft.”
The manufacturing flight is ready to provide parts as these future upgrades are made and as necessary maintenance is needed by partnering with other Commodities Maintenance Squadrons at Hill.
The 532nd CMMXS will be called on to provide plating and grind operations and the 531st CMMXS will do some primer and paint applications.
“It will be an ongoing thing for years to come,” Donoviel said. “We will take their requests in the quantities they want and run them through our process to provide quality parts that will help keep our F-16s flying in the Navy’s Top Gun program”
McCall has been impressed with the operations at Hill and looks forward to a continued relationship between the two military services.
“I have nothing but praise for both USN and USAF teams’ collaboration efforts as both teams strive to meet the needs of the Fleet,” he said.