Keeping the mission moving, one part at a time

MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. – The sound of the flight line rolls through the 22nd Logistics Readiness Squadron’s aircraft parts store.

The deep rumble of KC-46A Pegasus and KC-135 Stratotanker engines carries into the building as aircraft come and go. Inside, forklifts move through the aisles while vertical lift modules rise and lower, moving trays of parts much like an industrial vending machine.

The large doors remain open, letting air flow through the facility and bringing in the Kansas heat. Under the warm tint of the overhead lights, personnel work between rows of green storage units, shelves, and equipment. When one of the units is opened, the smell of stored equipment and packaging escapes into the warehouse.

Among the units is one holding parts for the KC-46A Pegasus.

The storage unit contains a High Priority Mission Support Kit, commonly called a HIT-MIS kit. The mobile kits carry parts maintenance personnel are likely to need wherever KC-46 operations take them, allowing maintainers to access what they need without waiting for a part to be ordered and shipped.

That is why personnel are working through the kit.

OneHIT-MIS kit recently returned from an overseas location after supporting operations for approximately six months. Before it can be sent out again, its contents must reflect what maintenance needs.

Each year, supply and maintenance personnel review the parts being used and determine what should change. A part stocked in a quantity of two may only need one, while another may need more based on demand.

Those recommendations then move to Air Mobility Command A4, the staff directorate responsible for Logistics, Engineering, and Force Protection, which considers the needs of the KC-46 fleet as a whole.

“We take what maintenance wants, we give it to AMC A4, and they decide based on the whole fleet what kind of changes they’re going to do to a kit,” said Nadine Wiese, 22nd LRS aircraft parts store supervisor.

The process keeps the kits aligned across KC-46 locations.

“This kit, with the parts that are listed that are allowed to be in here, is the same kit that’s going to be at Fairchild [Air Force Base, Washington] and Pease [Air National Guard Base, New Hampshire] and any other [KC-46] base,” Wiese said.

Once the updated requirements make their way back to the base, the work moves from a conference room to the warehouse floor.

Personnel open the kit and work through its contents, checking parts and quantities against what it is supposed to carry. Items that no longer belong are identified, while other parts are prepared to be added.

The warehouse provides the equipment to do it.

Forklifts move the larger loads. Vertical lift modules bring trays of parts to the operator. Storage units can be moved and positioned for transport.

The work is physical, but what it supports happens somewhere else.

The kit may leave McConnell and spend months supporting operations at another location before returning to the warehouse. When it is gone, the people who prepared it may never know which part will eventually be needed; they only know that one may be. When that happens, the difference between having it in the kit and having to wait for it to arrive can reach beyond the parts store.

“If they don’t have the part here, then we have to wait for it to be ordered and delivered by [a] shipping company,” Wiese said.

Having the part already available means a maintainer can retrieve it, get it to the aircraft and continue the work instead of waiting for a shipment.

That is what the reconciliation is preparing for –not simply a complete inventory, but a kit ready for the next time it is needed.

Outside the open doors, another KC-46 or KC-135 moves along the flight line, its engines carrying through the warehouse.

Inside, the forklifts continue through the aisles, and the vertical lift modules keep moving trays into position as personnel prepare the kit for its next destination.

“It’s an effort to not stop the mission,” Wiese said. “They’re able to get the part from the kit, go install it on the plane, and get back to business.”

The aircraft may be the part of the mission people see and hear, but the work to keep them moving begins long before they leave the flight line.

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