47th Maintenance Directorate

 

The 47th Flying Training Wing Maintenance Directorate is responsible for furnishing quality aircraft, support and services to its customers. It's assigned resources of aircraft, support equipment, and facilities are worth more than $1.3 billion. The Directorate's seven divisions are a mix of organizational and intermediate-level aircraft maintenance supporting the Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training mission at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas. The mission is accomplished with 593 civilians, 15 military, and 208 contractors utilizing 57 facilities.

Sortie generation is high-volume, over 40,000 sorties a year, and accounts for one of the largest flying training commitments in Air Education and Training Command, over 61,000 flying hours per year. The Directorate maintains the second largest active air fleet in the Air Force with 13 T-1A Jayhawks, 103 T-6A Texan IIs and 59 T-38C Talons. It also monitors several contractor-managed activities and furnishes base-level local manufacture and munitions storage accountability.

Divisions:

T-1 Aircraft Maintenance Division: The T-1A Aircraft Maintenance Division conducts launch, recovery, servicing and inspections for 13 aircraft which support Phase II of the 47 FTW SUPT mission.
 

T-6 Aircraft Maintenance Division: The T-6 Aircraft Maintenance Division conducts launch, recovery, servicing, and inspections for 103 T-6 aircraft used to support Phase II of 47 FTW SUPT.


T-38 Aircraft Maintenance Division: The T-38 Aircraft Maintenance Division conducts launch, recovery, servicing and inspections for 59 assigned aircraft used to support Phase II of 47 FTW SUPT. It is also the base focal point for crash recovery services at Laughlin AFB and other locations assigned by Headquarters AETC.

Component Maintenance Division: 47FTW Components Maintenance Division is composed of a variety of aircraft maintenance support sections Avionics, Hydraulics, Tires, Fuels, Egress, Aerospace ground Equipment (AGE), Munitions, Corrosion, Fabrication, and Nondestructive Inspections (NDI). Components Division highly skilled aircraft maintenance specialists and technicians provide safe and reliable on and off aircraft and equipment support by an array of intermediate-level repairs for stationed T-38 /T-6/T-1 aircraft. Established the first Air Education and Training Command (AETC) base to launch a civil service-driven Air Force Repair Enhancement Program (AFREP) an initiative that supports self-sustainability and efficiency by repairing aircraft parts.
 

Maintenance Operations Division: Maintenance Operations Division manages a diverse array of services which keep the T-6 Texan II, T-1 Jayhawk, and T-38 Talon aircraft maintenance production well planned and integrated with sortie production defined by the 47 FTW pilot training syllabus. It coordinates the logistical inventory and movement of an estimated 8,000 repair cycle assets through the flight line, component maintenance, and the base-level supply system. It maintains and monitors the Directorate's portion of Laughlin AFB's computerized hardware and software, local area network, data automation infrastructure, and the Integrated Maintenance Data System.  The Division also provides management of budget, personnel concern, plans and programs, administrative support for records management, publications and forms, facility management, personnel security, training, and information security

Quality Assurance Division: The Quality Assurance Division keeps the Director of Maintenance informed of the daily condition of assigned aircraft, related support equipment and personnel proficiencies. It provides central management for functional check flights, deficiency report analysis, environmental protection, maintenance production analysis, safety and technical order distribution. It also manages the maintenance standardization evaluation program intended to meet quality maintenance needs and comply with training during personnel evaluations. Its activities affect everyone assigned to the Directorate, 783 pieces of related support equipment, and 57 facilities.


Contract Performance Management Division: The Contract Performance Management Division monitors six key contractor-managed activities at Laughlin AFB. These are the T-1A Contractor Operated and Maintained Base Supply, T-6A COMBS, T-38C Avionics Upgrade Program COMBS, Transient Aircraft Maintenance, a T-6 Field Service Representative, and the Aircraft Sunshade Maintenance Contract. Also, provide surveillance on a variety of Contract Field Teams performing aircraft modifications and are the Heritage Display Aircraft custodians charged with upkeep of the artifacts.  Altogether, the contracts are worth an estimated $223 million furnishing services to the 47th FTW. 

(Current as of September 2024)