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BULLSEYE
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Manpower keeps mission going at Nellis
By Senior Airman Jake Carter
99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. —
The 99th Force Support Squadron
manpower section here, is in charge of
determining the amount of Airmen that
are allotted to each unit.
Throughout the Air Force, the Man-
power Requirement Squadron will
conduct studies on each career field to
determine if a squadron is manned at
the appropriate level.
“Manpower is determined by the
amount or complexity of the work being
done,” said Staff Sgt. Brandon Rainford,
99th Force Support Squadron manpower
analyst. “The Manpower Requirement
Squadron conducts a study on each
career field at different locations to de-
HHL16, from page 1____________
ed the data collected during the opera-
tional assessment will provide developers
valuable information needed to work on
some of the shortfalls found within the
radio itself and help improve the device.
There will be a couple more operational
assessments and the HHL16 is expected
to be deployed into to the operating com-
munity around March of 2017.
The Link 16 was originally designed
for air-to-air missions, but the technology
has made the transition to ground forces,
providing JTACs advantages on the
battlefield that they didn’t previously have. back and build situational awareness with
“Increasing situational awareness on
the battlefield takes a significant amount
CHECKLIST, from page 1 _______
This project, along with projects at
Hill AFB, Utah, and McConnell AFB,
Kansas, will provide criteria for stan-
dardized Air Force hangar fire suppres-
sion acceptance testing.
The visit also included joint ser-
vices FPE working group meetings for
standardizing the checklist, providing
training and moving forward to bring
uniformity across the services on han-
gar fire suppression systems. FPEs from
the Air Force, Air National Guard,
Navy, Army Corps of Engineers and
industry participated to make this
an educational experience of benefit
across the Air Force enterprise, as well
as influence future industry standards.
The hangar fire suppression system
designer and FPE, designed the hangar
fire suppression system at Nellis AFB.
“Fire protection in hangars had
reached an equilibrium state,” said
Chris Cahill, FPE and hangar fire sup-
pression system designer for the Nellis
AFB system.
In addition to the Air Force hangar
Feature
termine the manning earned and pub-
lishes standards to keep all career field
functions across the U.S. Air Force from
becoming undermanned or over manned
for the amount of work they do.”
With Nellis AFB being in the South-
west part of the United States, manning
across each base may also vary depend-
ing on geographical location.
“In some cases there are variances to the mined by the Air Force Personnel Center.
standard. For example, a Civil Engineer
shop here and a CE shop at Minot AFB,
North Dakota, may have the same work-
load but Minot AFB could earn more be-
cause of the winter weather, making their
job more complex,” said Rainford. “The
base level manpower implements these
standards across their perspective base.”
With manpower in charge of the
manning at each unit, they also work
of voice communication between air and
ground parties,” said Wambolt. “The
advantage of having a tactical data link
is that it enables digitally aided CAS in-
tegration, facilitating timely successful
air power in support of the ground force
commander.”
According to Wambolt, the radio is
going to be forward deployed, passed
the frontline of troops, something that
they haven’t been able to do in the past.
“Being able to put this radio on an op-
erator down range is going to allow that
operator, connected to the Link, to reach
his pilot while he is on the air base and is
getting ready to take-off to support that
JTAC in his area of operation,” said Wam-
study conducted over the past year, the
Air National Guard has been conduct-
ing a similar study. Air Force and Air
National Guard FPEs have worked
closely together and provided valuable
insight towards standardization efforts.
Fire protection engineers from Nel-
lis AFB attended the hangar’s fire sup-
pression system testing for safety and
educational purposes. Irvin Ridgeway,
99th CES fire prevention specialist, led
the group through this process.
“This was one of the most thorough
tests I have witnessed and I am posi-
tive I know exactly what to look for on
future tests,” said Ridgeway. “The live
propane pan fires to test the new triple
IR detectors were an interesting revi-
sion from the jet fuel pan fires used
previously. This was also an ‘out of the
norm’ hangar addition that connected
two systems into one and Ms. Biddle’s
system determinations were extremely
valuable.”
Nellis AFB will continue to work
closely with AFCEC to ensure future
hangar fire suppression systems meet
criteria.
3April 1, 2016
Facebook.com/NellisBullseye
with re-training as well as the critically field, I was an aircraft armament specialist.
manned career fields. As much as I enjoyed that job, I didn’t see
it leading to the life I wanted after retire-
“For first-term Airmen, when they ment or leaving me with the type of skills
complete 35 months of their current enlist- I desired to have as a civilian,” said Staff
ment of a four year contract or 59 months Sgt. Joshua Goodwin, 99th Force Support
for 6-year enlistees, but no later than the Squadron manpower analyst, mission
last duty day of the 43rd month of their team. “When I started looking into chang-
current enlistment or 67 months for 6-year ing my career field and found Manpower, I
enlistees,” said Rainford. “Each career field was immediately interested. After talking
will have its own retraining quotas, deter- with the local Manpower Office and hear-
ing about the big picture type impact they
If a member is not a first term airman, it is dealt with and also the process improve-
up to the member’s career field functional ment side of things I switched my focus to
to release them for retraining.” doingeverythingIcouldin orderto become
a part of the Manpower community.”
With manpower being a career that
Airmen must cross-train into after For Airmen who may be interested in
serving in another career field, they are contacting or cross-training into man-
always looking for Airmen who may power can call 702-652-9066 for more
want a new change of scenery. information.
“Prior to joining the Manpower career
bolt. “By building this situational aware- to place digital targeting information
ness picture of threats and targets, the Link on the battlefield and transmit that data
16 reach back will essentially provide a new to the aircraft gives the community the
capability to JTACs on the ground giving integration we need for future, near-peer,
us that link umbrella that establishes situ- adversaries.”
ational awareness on the battlefield.”
Once the device has been implement-
Even though the HHL16 is still in the ed operationally, the HHL16 will be a
early stages of development, the feedback game changer for the JTAC community.
from operators has been very positive.
“This system will tie the JTAC com-
“This week has been very successful,” munity together and more importantly,
said Waters. “We have been successfully standardize the JTAC toolkit, said Waters.
able to transmit friendly positions, tar- “Link 16 is implemented in the majority
geting information, and text messages of military aircraft and its usefulness has
directly to fixed wing aircraft. already been proven. Having a HHL16
radio will give JTACs and aircraft a com-
“Both the JTACs and the pilots agree mon, similar, standardized and secure
that being able to see friendly ground platform to successfully and safely execute
positions displayed on the Link 16 net- digitally aided CAS for years to come.”
work is a huge success. Also, the ability
U.S. Air Force photo by Susan Lawson
A fire protection engineer trains fire alarm shop staff at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., on a
newly installed flame detection system during acceptance testing of a hangar addition.