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731st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron tests AMC offload/exchange zone procedure

By 1st Lt. Toni Tones
51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs

OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea (AMCNS) -- After shutting down the engines after a two and a half hour flight, the C-130 crew opened the hatch to offload the cargo and passengers destined for Osan.

Kaboom! The base had just been hit by a simulated scud attack, possibly contaminating the passengers and cargo that just arrived.

Members of the 731st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron here and 36th Airlift Squadron from Yokota AB, Japan faced this scenario Thursday during the testing of the Air Mobility Command offload/exchange zone concept of operations. This operating procedure, one of four being tested by the Restoration of Operations Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, focuses on the decontamination of passengers, cargo and aircraft.

If an attack occurs, the aircrew's primary role is to close the aircraft to prevent any contamination from getting inside. They, along with any passengers on board, would don their chemical warfare defense ensemble and prepare to process through a decontamination center once they've exited the aircraft. The cargo is covered in plastic on the aircraft and later removed for cleaning.

"The current belief is flying a contaminated aircraft for two hours removes any residue of chemical agent from the plane, keeping it serviceable and operational," said Lt. Col. John Ahern, RestOps manager. "AMC will test this concept on a C-141 in the CONUS (continental United States) sometime this summer."

There's no current process for decontaminating an aircraft, added Ted McGovern, RestOps AMC lead. "You run the risk of corroding the wires and other hardware on the aircraft if a solution is applied."

Also part of the AMC procedure is the concept of a transload base, which is a clean base outside the contaminated area where passengers and cargo can land, according to McGovern. "If a base is contaminated, the Air Force posture is to keep its clean assets away from that area, and the transload base is the optimum solution." (Courtesy Pacific Air Forces News Service)

(Editor's note: Osan AB, Korea, is a test site for the final RestOps demonstration. The last ACTD demonstration will assess the military utility of several new or improved chemical defense technologies and operational procedures. The ACTD first visited Osan in February 2001 and has participated in several combat employment readiness exercises over the past two years.)