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ASC helps put bombers closer to the fight

AFMC News Service Release

Released Nov. 25, 2002

By 2nd Lt. Tracy Bunko Aeronautical Systems Center Public Affairs

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFMCNS) - B-2 System Program Office shelter team experts here recently helped create transportable hangers that allow the Air Force's boomerang-shaped stealth bombers to deploy overseas for the first time ever.

In addition to getting the B-2 Spirit bombers closer to the fight when needed, the deployable shelters will keep B-2 crews from having to fly what have been, in past combat operations, up to 44-hour missions to strike targets and return home due to the lack of required environmentally-controlled space for maintenance, said Col. Janet Wolfenbarger, B-2 system program director.

The need to find a fix to the problem started in 1998 when the B-2 passed through Guam and maintenance crews found a shortage of temperature-controlled space needed to maintain the aircraft's Low Observable - or stealth - coatings and materials, said Wolfenbarger. Officials from Air Combat Command, the aircraft's operational user, challenged Aeronautical Systems Center experts to provide them with a deployable shelter capable of supporting B-2 maintenance operations.

"We had to work with warfighters, force planners and logisticians to come up with a viable option that would meet ACC's needs," she said.

Those needs included specifications that the shelters withstand high and low temperature extremes, 40 pounds of snow per square foot and 110 mph winds. Working with the contractor, team members developed a $2.5 million shelter system that stands 55 feet high, 126 feet long and 250 feet wide and can be stored and shipped in 23 containers.

The contract for the shelters was awarded in October 1999 to American Spaceframe Fabricators, Inc. ASFI delivered the first shelter system to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., home of the B-2 bomber. There, team members conducted a test and evaluation program. In total, maintainers and contractor workers successfully erected and dismantled the shelter system three times.

To further demonstrate the shelter system's capabilities, 509th Bomb Wing maintenance crews at Whiteman successfully performed necessary LO maintenance on the B-2 while it was in the shelter. A survey reported they felt the shelter was completely effective.

"We've built a system equal to or greater than current hangar capabilities," said Wolfenbarger. "That's the kind of support we want to give the warfighter and the capability we want to give the theater commanders."

According to the program's manager, people from various locations with diverse expertise came together to make the project a success.

"Personnel in the combat support systems office at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., played a vital role in the successful acquisition of the B-2 Shelter," said Marta Conant, B-2 SPO Shelter System program manager.

The B-2 Shelter Team is comprised of experts from Air Combat Command headquarters at Langley Air Force Base, Va., the 509th Bomb Wing and the 49th Materiel Maintenance Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.