ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE Ga. -- -- You may have heard the phrase, “This is how we have always done it,” but as technology becomes more advanced so should our old way of thinking.
A group of 461
st Air Control Wing Airmen with the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System Team at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, are finding new solutions to old ways of doing business.
“The Data Electronic Signal Working Group was formed in June 2019 to answer the question of what we can do better in wire maintenance,” said Tech. Sgt. Bradley Johnson, 461st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron instruments and flight controls specialist.
The group was assigned the task of finding new solutions and technology.
“Our focus would be looking for better, faster, stronger ways to do our job more efficiently,” said Johnson.
The working group’s early days were troubled.
“At first it was difficult to get people in the squadron interested and involved with the working group, so I had to change my approach,” said Johnson. “We had a lot of struggles up front with people. They go by the old idea of ‘this is how it has always been’ – essentially the philosophy of taking what they have and making it work.”
Johnson said instead of having long, boring meetings, he approached companies to come to their work-center for product demonstrations.
“This would get me a walking audience,” he said. “People would naturally stop to see the demonstration and would ask what was happening. This developed a lot of participation.”
As the products were being demonstrated, Johnson would get on-the-spot feedback.
“I would walk around and ask people what they thought of the products,” said Johnson, “whether this would or would not affect their work section, and why or why not.”
Johnson’s method began to pay off.
“The maintainers provided some useful feedback. I noticed the more I brought people in to see the products I was talking about, the more they wanted to be involved with DESWG,” said Johnson. “It has a lot more impact when you can put something in their hands and they see the benefit of it.”
Johnson’s group began to grow across the maintenance sections.
“The DESWG we created now spans multiple jobs in these areas—Instruments and Flight Controls, Communication and Navigation, Surveillance Radar, Electrical and Environmental, and any specialty that deals with wiring,” said Johnson. “It’s comprised of JSTARS technical experts from four different AFSCs and has an open invitation to the entire 461st Maintenance Group with a goal to have as many members as it can.”
The group has identified new technology to replace older technology.
“Our working group found a solution to replace the obsolete time domain reflectometer with a newer and more advanced spread spectrum time domain reflectometer,” said Johnson. “This will save time locating and troubleshooting wiring that will decrease downtime to the aircraft, keep JSTARS missions flying, and support the warfighter.”
The working group is also working together to create better training for their Airmen.
“We are looking for solutions beyond equipment,” said Johnson. “We are looking into training by building an avionics wire troubleshooting work bench, so we can use it to train our Airmen in a less stressful and less time-constrained environment.”
Team JSTARS benefits immensely from the DESWG.
“In the end it all translates upward. What benefits my Airmen makes things better, faster, and stronger for them,” said Johnson. “This will increase aircraft availability and decrease downtime and makes us more available to go out and do our mission, not just here at home but also in deployed locations.”