Photo By Staff Sgt. Jason Cochran | Airmen assigned to the 36th Fighter Generation Squadron take accountability of their...... read more read more
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Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea – In the event of an armed conflict, one of the key responsibilities of the 51st Fighter Wing is to provide airpower to combatant commands, a crucial resource for successful operations.
Airmen assigned to the 36th Fighter Generation Squadron have taken a great stride toward optimizing the airpower from each aircraft by shifting the way they can put weapons on F-16 Fighting Falcons by adopting the Integrated Combat Turnaround.
“The difference between an ICT and regular loading operations is that loading is conducted while the engines are running and with simultaneous refueling service,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Agustin Choi, 51st Maintenance Group loading standardization crew member. “The purpose of it is to generate combat airpower as quickly as possible while minimizing aircraft downtime.”
By saving the time required to turn off and then restart the engine, each aircraft rearmed by an ICT can get back into the air roughly 30 minutes faster, emphasized Choi. While leaving an aircraft engine on does create a tactical advantage, there are newly introduced risks that Airmen mitigate and solve.
“With the engines running all of the aircraft danger areas, including the moving control surfaces, intake and exhaust, come into play,” said Choi. “We also have to be overly cautious of tool accountability, and the noise makes communication within the team much more difficult.”
Several steps are taken to mitigate these risks, said Choi. The crews utilize wireless headsets so that they can operate effectively as a team, and they receive rigorous training.
“We have ICT academics where we train them in a classroom setting,” said Choi. “And then we run them through a cold ICT, which is the same thing as an ICT but without the aircraft’s engine running.”
Choi states that once an Airman has completed the academic training they perform a ‘full ICT’ where supervision evaluates their performance and issues a successful certification valid for 6 months.
“I think it is great to integrate with our maintenance counterparts, such as crew chiefs and fuels, and to work as one team,” said Choi. “And for us as weapons it is awesome to showcase our ability to load as safely and quickly as possible to generate combat airpower.”
| Date Taken: | 02.24.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.24.2025 01:26 |
| Story ID: | 491334 |
| Location: | OSAN AIR BASE, GYEONGGIDO [KYONGGI-DO], KR |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, More Airpower: ICT certification elevates 51st Fighter Wing’s capabilities, by SSgt Jason Cochran, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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