The Reserve Ammunition Team: IMAs ensure troops have the munitions they need

In order for the Air Force to accomplish its mission--to fly, fight and win--its takes ammunition, and lots of it.

Over the last 21 months of the global war on terrorism, Air Force officials report that the service has dropped or fired more than 34 million pounds of munitions from airframes ranging from the Vietnam-era B-52 to the state-of-the-art Predator unmanned aerial vehicle. Making sure forces in the field have the munitions they need to take on al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan, and that these munitions are in top-notch condition, is a big job. Among those tasked with that responsibility are individual mobilization augmentees of the Air Force Reserve Ammunition Team, stationed at Tier 1 Army ammunition depots.

"The work accomplished by the 123 IMAs on the team provides the support structure to make the Air Force mission of dropping bombs on target possible," said Capt. Jeffrey Hoffman, AFRAT program manager, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. "In addition, they fill voids within active-duty munitions squadrons, fulfilling the basic needs of the squadrons preparing the large number of munitions shipments that are required to support Operation Enduring Freedom."

Hoffman said within the first 90 days of OEF, reservists assisted in the shipment of more than 100 C-5 Galaxies, C-17A Globemaster IIIs and civilian 747s filled with more than 5,100 short tons of munitions heading to storage areas in the theater of operations. With the AFRAT members augmenting shipping operations stateside, active-duty people were free to forward deploy.

While some team members were helping ship munitions, others were at the Tier I depots of Tooele Army Depot, Utah; McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, Okla.; Crane Army Ammunition Activity, Ind.; and Blue Grass Army Depot, Ky., pulling munitions for inspections and repairs and returning them to serviceable condition.

"When the Air Staff and leadership at the Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill look for help during a crisis situation, they know our work force of highly skilled and knowledgeable NCOs is capable of handling surges in munitions taskings and is available at a moment's notice," said Chief Master Sgt. Dave Colella, ammunition control point superintendent. "The NCOs on the AFRAT team have experience working under the more stringent standard operating procedures of the Army and Navy depots, allowing them to meet shipping requirements for the most heavily used munitions in the inventory."

Since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, the team has supplied warfighters with 2,303 Joint Direct Attack Munitions bomb bodies; 3,367 general-purpose bombs; 4,000 wind-corrected munitions dispensers; 9,273 MK-107 impulse carts; 1.4 million rounds of 7.62 mm M-16 rounds and other munitions in various quantities.

"AFRAT has provided direct support to the Air-to-Surface Munitions Directorate's Readiness Division at Hill during Operations Enduring Freedom, Northern Watch, Southern Watch and now Iraqi Freedom, which gives you some idea of how successful and important the program is," said Colella. "Since AFRAT's inception, initially on a test basis in March 1995 and becoming fully operational in 1997, the team has returned more than $1 billion worth of munitions to the warfighters in a 'ready-to-go' operational condition."

"Eight years ago when we were struggling to get the AFRAT program started, when active-duty people and even many reservists were skeptical of or even hostile toward IMAs ... who would have thought it would produce this much return oil investment," said Brig. Gen. Rosanne Bailey, director, Aeronautical Enterprise Program Office, Aeronautical Systems Center, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. "This just goes to show what you can get from linking up motivated, capable people with work they know is important to the Air Force and nation."

Colella said AFRAT provides a career path for people who decide to leave active duty and join the Reserve. On average, members of the team have 18.5 years of service. The corporate knowledge of the ammo career field these people have is invaluable and saves training dollars while offering career opportunities outside active duty.

For Tech. Sgt. Leo Cummings, becoming a member of AFRAT afforded him the opportunity to advance professionally and still be a part of the Air Force. Cummings, a former member of the Indiana Air National Guard, heard rumors that his unit was going to lose its fighter mission, and the possibility of cross-training was something that didn't appeal to him.

"AFRAT has allowed me to stay with the ammo career field and be an active part of Operation Enduring Freedom," he said. "Now I have hands-on experience at a depot shipping munitions overseas."

The AFRAT scope of responsibility has far exceeded its original objectives of providing 100 percent condition verification of preferred ammunition stored in the Army depot system. Tier I Army depots store training and the first 30 days of war reserve munitions. IMAs are mobilized to augment ammo depots during operational surges to help with priority worldwide munitions taskings.

Colella said IMAs have moved from depots to various installations throughout the United States providing day-to-day operational coverage depending on requirements and needs of the war fighters.

On any given day, IMAs may be converting Cluster Bomb Unit-87s to a newly designed wind-corrected munition dispenser CBU-103 at Blue Grass. At Toole, AFRAT-salvaged Navy impulse cartridges marked for demilitarization are being refurbished to use in the B-1B in the delivery of Joint Direct Attack Munitions over Afghanistan, thus averting a serious mission shortage of cartridges. JDAMs are a weapon of choice due to their precision and destructive capability.

At Hill and Lackland, starter stock capabilities in Standard Air Munition Packages and Standard Tank, Rack, Pylon Packages are being built to be loaded onto C-130s for worldwide rapid response capability. The IMAs at Eglin work in the test wing, augmenting active duty running the precision-guided munitions shop as well as the line delivery function.

The ammunition control point at Hill is responsible for monitoring the work load, assigning AFRAT members to each base, controlling funding and ensuring overall management of the program.

Airmen on the team also complete time compliance technical order maintenance on munitions to improve their accuracy. Recently, six AFRAT members, four Raytheon contractors and a Department of Defense civilian formed a short-notice, high-priority team to repair Maverick missiles at a forward Central Command location.

In the first eight days of the operation, the team trained, coordinated logistics support, procured equipment and tools, scheduled airlift and departed for the AOR. During the first 40 days, the team completed back plate installations on 400 missiles in three Middle Eastern countries and departed within two days of the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"The mission proved to be a big success with modified missiles being used immediately in Operation Iraqi Freedom," said Senior Master Sgt. Robert Smith, team chief. He said the team saved thousands of dollars by doing the needed repairs at forward locations instead of moving the missiles to other locations.

"When combatant commanders call for munitions to be in place at a certain time and place, AFRAT plays a large part of making sure those requirements are met each and every time," Colella said, "and we will continue to do so in the future."

COPYRIGHT 2003 Air Force Reserves
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group