AFMC Command News

Wiring harness gives F-15 backup power source

  • Published
  • By Holly L. Birchfield
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFMCNS) --  Workers in the 402nd Electronics Maintenance Group at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., used their expertise to give the F-15 Eagle "the juice to turn loose."

Six electronics technicians from the group worked more than 4,000 hours making 112 wiring harnesses to replace existing faulty ones.

Ronnie Massengale, the 402nd Electronics Maintenance Group Gyroscope and Electronics Repair Flight chief, said the harnesses needed to be replaced due to wear and tear.

"These wiring harnesses provide all of the secondary power for pertinent systems in the F-15 aircraft," he said. "Our folks manufactured 16 sets (seven in each set) of these harnesses, which would go on the 16 A-D model F-15s that go through the program depot maintenance (PDM) line here."

Workers recently identified the problems and opted to replace the harnesses rather than continue repairs. It was a decision that will save the Air Force thousands of dollars in future repair costs, said Mr. Massengale.

"They had to be delivered prior to the end of fiscal '05," he said. "We originally had six months to manufacture the harnesses. But with the equipment not coming in until July that gave us only half of that time to get the work done."

"The folks who worked these kind of issues all the way to resolution are just as dedicated and just as excited about giving the warfighter this capability as those in the field," Col. David Lawson, 402nd Electronics Maintenance Group commander said. "They take their job of providing this capability to heart."

Once the wiring harnesses were built, the equipment was installed during PDM.

Colonel Lawson said he is proud of the team's hard work.

"The team that worked on this project was so professional," he said. "All we had to do was get the material and parts for them and tell them when we needed it. After that was done, it was simply a matter of getting out of the way and letting them do their thing."

Col. Donald Chew, 402nd Maintenance Group commander, said Robins' work on the wiring harness component significantly improved the reliability of the secondary power system for the field.

"I think it was a tremendous effort that supports a very big problem," he said. "We spend a lot of maintenance manhours in the field troubleshooting aircraft start problems, and often the problem is really in the wiring itself and not within the components."