JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) teamed up with Airmen
from the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) to participate in Phase III of Pacific
Agility 17-0.
This Pacific Agility exercise brought
together the U.S. Air Force 15th Maintenance Group (15 MXG), from
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, and the 36th Squadron (36 SQN), from
RAAF Base Amberley, Brisbane, Queensland Australia.
According to U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Bryan
Bennett, the Command C-17 Functional Manager for PACAF, the training initiative
will save time and money.
“The way we are postured right now is, if one of our
aircraft breaks down in Australia than we have to send a team with parts to fix
it and vice versa,” said Bennett. “Since
the Australians also have C-17 maintainers, it makes sense to coordinate the
repair locally and eliminate the additional travel cost and lost mission
velocity. This would save both time and
money for both of our countries.”
The universal availability of the C-17 has
opened a door to building a mutually beneficial cooperation between Australia
and the U.S.
“Given the global nature of C-17 operations, this type of
training allows 36 SQN to understand how other organizations like the 15 MXG
operates,” said RAAF Flying Officer Dylan Banning. “This enhanced understanding enables greater
flexibility and multinational integration for future exercises and operations.”
Banning also outlined some of the goals of
the training event.
“As a squadron we hope to gain an appreciation
for how the 15th Maintenance Group maintains its C-17 fleet in line with the
intent of Enhanced Air Cooperation training,” said Banning. “Working alongside the 15 MXG provides 36 SQN
with the opportunity to observe the maintenance procedures of another
organization with a similar C-17 fleet providing ideas for 36 SQN to improve
its maintenance efficiency.”
According to Bennett, the maintenance piece
of the training is the easy part.
“Maintenance is pretty standard anywhere you go,” said
Bennett. “The next step will be with the
maintenance data documentation. If we
can get the system to work so both countries can input the maintenance
activities we accomplish and sign off our own work, we will be golden.”