Technology challenges Airmen to improve

  • Published
  • By Maj. Shane Wehunt
  • 860th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Advances in technology have driven our military capability to unprecedented levels during the past three decades. 

Leaders can now communicate their message to the force faster and more clearly than ever before and that message can be sent directly to each Airman across the entire service.  Technological advancements have enabled the Mobility Air Forces and Combat Air Forces to execute their missions safer, faster and with greater precision, effectiveness and efficiency than at any time in history. 

However, this advancement in technology has generated a litany of new concerns for us as Airmen to consider. Each functional area across our Air Force can list hundreds of new challenges that are derived as a result of this technological paradigm shift.  Some of these challenges are internally driven and require a fresh way of thinking in order to effectively address each of them.  Solutions less technical and more cerebral are essential in these cases. 

It is a known that there is a human need to feel needed. It is also true that each Airmen needs to feel that what they bring to the fight is essential to the mission and that without their direct involvement, the mission would be less effective and thus less successful. 

In aircraft maintenance, the maintainer's need to feel needed has been challenged by technology more and more throughout the years. As the demand for more reliable aircraft is levied upon aircraft manufacturers, the intangible impact on the maintainer has been in the relationship maintainers build with their aircraft.  Maintainers of the past had to know their aircraft inside and out. They needed to know each system exceptionally well and they needed to know the personality of their aircraft through its history. 

Aircraft of World War II, Vietnam, Korea and into Desert Shield/Storm were temperamental and had individual personalities much more than modern aircraft being maintained by today's Airmen.  As a result, the aircraft mechanics of the past built a strong relationship with their aircraft and felt absolutely vital to daily mission execution. 

Modern-day aircraft starting with the C-17 Globemaster III through the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II are challenging that relationship and the KC-46 Pegasus will be no exception.  These aircraft, in stark contrast to their predecessors, are incredibly reliable and are designed to automate many of the tasks that a maintainer relied upon to build that relationship. 

Additionally, technology has allowed computers to identify maintenance issues instantaneously and, in some cases, the aircraft can, through a data link, order the parts required to fix itself before the maintainer can even see the aircraft on approach for landing.  The design of modern aircraft has made the work considerably less challenging and technology has replaced much or the troubleshooting skills required in generations past.  Don't misunderstand; These advancements are exactly what have made us safer, faster and more efficient. 

However, as a result, maintenance leadership across our Air Force must embrace these intangible challenges and facilitate a relationship between their Airmen maintainers and the mission itself rather than the aircraft they maintain.