Page 5 - Desert Lightning News 2-5-16

Desert Lightning News February 5, 2016 5

www.aerotechnews.com/davis-monthanafb

Facebook.com/DesertLightningNews

Munitions Flight is the bomb

Airman Basic Nathan H. Barbour

355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. -- Tucked away at (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Basic Nathan H. Barbour)
D-M AFB, the 355th Equipment Maintenance Squadron munitions
flight builds bombs. U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Krisjan Osorio, 355th Equipment Maintenance Squadron line deliv-
ery crew member, and Airman 1st Class Justin Claiborn, , 355th EMS munitions flight conven-
The munitions flight, also known as AMMO, supports the D-M AFB tional maintenance crew member, apply weapon stock numbers to Mark 82 bombs at Davis-
mission by assembling whatever types of munitions are needed. Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Jan. 8, 2016. The Airmen also applied a marking with the fuse
setting so the loaders on the flightline can verify that the fuse is set to the correct settings.
“The main focus for us is to support the flight line,” said U.S. Air
Force Tech. Sgt. Timothy Starling, 355th EMS munitions flight produc-
tion supervisor. “If they request it and we have the components to do
the job, we are going to get it done and get it out to the flightline so the
pilots can fly and drop the bombs that they want to drop.”

After the components are delivered, AMMO crew members must do
a preassembly inspection on every single component. The bombs then
get loaded onto a munitions assembly conveyer where it is assembled
according to their technical order.

“There are actually hundreds of different variations of bombs, but
the two bomb bodies that we use are the Mark 82 which weighs 500
pounds and the Mark 84 weighing in at 2,000 pounds.” Starling said.
“What creates the different variations are the components we use to
assemble them.”

The munitions flight supports three A-10C Thunderbolt II units, two
C-130 units and one HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter unit here.

“Our smallest rocket build that we do is about 1,200 rockets,” Starling
said. “We can get that done with breakout, building and cleaning up in
about two days.”