Tinker hub for 4,000 tons of F-16 materiel to Iraq

[Alshawi1234]

http://www.tinker.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123377101


(Official website)
Delivery over two year period.

1/17/2014 - TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Eight million pounds of aircraft parts and equipment and ground support vehicles destined for Iraq will begin moving to and through Tinker AFB, starting in about a week and continuing for the next two years.

The 4,000 tons of cargo are part of a $6.5 billion foreign military sale of F-16 fighter aircraft to Iraq, according to Steven Max, Chief, Air Terminal Operations and Passenger Movement, 72nd Logistics Readiness Squadron.

"The Iraqis have nothing to sustain the F-16 Mission" at Joint Base Balad 50 miles north of Baghdad "except empty buildings," said Mr. Max. "No logistics. No maintenance backshop. No terminal operations. Nobody to unload 'planes." Facilities at Balad were abandoned after the U.S. military pulled out of Iraq three years ago and will have to be rebuilt, Mr. Max said.

For all practical purposes, Iraq has a light switch, and the United States Air Force will build the house around it. "They have a flight line and a couple of buildings; we're supplying everything else that they need," said Staff Sgt. Jessica Hobkirk-Burrow, 72 LRS, Air Terminal Operations. The Iraqis are paying the entire cost of everything the U.S. is supplying, Mr. Max added.

"We're helping the Iraqis defend themselves," said Sergeant Hobkirk-Burrow. "It's pretty awesome."

"This sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by enhancing the capability of Iraq," said Col. Todd Vician, commander of the 72nd Mission Support Group. "It also will improve Iraq's interoperability with the U.S. and other NATO nations, and support Iraq's own self-defense requirements."

According to the Air Force Materiel Command transportation manager, the FMS cargo that will be airlifted to Iraq from Tinker will include:
· Various vehicles, including street sweepers, refueling tankers, towing tractors, utility vehicles, sport utility vehicles, cargo and passenger vans, pickups, a wrecker truck, trailers, tractor trucks, forklifts, k-loaders, fire trucks, rescue trucks and ambulances.

· Flight line equipment, including compressors, axle maintenance stands, hydraulic jacks, munitions handling trailers, nitrogen hand trucks, missile assembly stands, a portable floor crane, ammunition drum hoists, maintenance platforms, sets of floodlights, towable utility cranes, motor generators, aircraft nose wheel towbars, hydraulic test stands, ammunition loaders, cranes, test stands, a fuel tank servicing stand, an avionics shop, test sets, and a centerline loader.

· Ammunition, The Defense Distribution Depot Red River, Texas, at Texarkana, will receive, package and process the materiel for onward movement to Tinker's Aerial Port Operations, where the cargo will be loaded onto 463L aircraft pallets for shipment to Balad, Iraq.

In all, hundreds of items comprising more than 400 National Stock Numbers will be routed from Texarkana through Tinker to Balad, Mr. Max said.

General cargo and rolling stock will be moved during the first 12 months. The materiel will begin moving out of the DDRT at Texarkana and into Tinker soon, Mr. Max said; backshop supplies are scheduled to arrive here during the summer and perhaps into the fall, too, he said. Other program materials will be moved during the second year, he said.

Over the next 24 months, 4,000 tons of foreign military sales cargo will pass through Tinker for transportation to Iraq on approximately 65 cargo aircraft, Mr. Max said.

Sergeant Hobkirk-Burrow said that all of the cargo loading will be done by a small contingent of Tinker Airmen. The 72nd LRS Air Terminal Operations unit has 15 personnel, but because of pending requirements, deployments scheduled in 2014, and other assignments, only a few Airmen are available for the Iraq cargo airlift project. "It's almost unheard of" for the same personnel to handle all of the cargo in a shipment of this magnitude, she added.

The 72nd LRS will be augmented occasionally by the 72nd Aerial Port Squadron, a U.S. Air Force Reserve unit affiliated with Tinker AFB. The opportunity to provide training to the 72nd APS will greatly enhance mission effectiveness and cross-unit cohesiveness, Mr. Max said.