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Fleet Readiness Center Southwest's (FRCSW) F/A-18 Hornet E-G Components Team earned the Chief of Naval Operations nomination to represent the Navy in the 2020 Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Robert T. Mason Award for Depot Maintenance Excellence.
The announcement was made via naval message on May 8.
Operating out of Buildings 378 and 472, the artisans assigned to the components team played a crucial role in meeting Commander, Naval Air Forces (CNAF) fiscal year (FY) 2019 initiative to achieve 341 mission-ready F/A-18E-F Super Hornets and 93 EA-18G Growlers.
The CNAF goal was aligned to a mandate by the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) to increase the mission availability of certain naval aircraft by more than 80 percent by 2020.
To meet the requirement the Secretary of the Navy initiated the Navy Sustainment System (NSS), a program designed to increase production and speed.
In October 2018, FRCSWs F/A-18 E-G components program became the Navy's first to apply the NSS.
Beginning with the hydraulics shop, the F/A-18E-G components program targeted Issue Priority Group One (IPG-1) aircraft, or aircraft that are down for a component.
Within six months the remaining three F/A-18 E-G components shops followed: Canopies and windscreens, generator and generator converter units (GCU) and the landing gear shop.
Combined, the four shops reduced IPG-1 component supply backorders by more than 50 percent and provided over 1,800 components for F/A-18E-G aircraft completed in FY19.
Selected as Naval Air Systems Command Best FRC Shop for FY 2019, the hydraulics shop increased its throughput by 28 percent, while decreasing repair turn-around time (TAT) by 39 percent.
The canopy and windscreen shop managed a combined throughput increase of 38 percent for F/A-18 E-G canopies and windscreens. It also decreased the TAT for E-G double canopies by 69 percent and E-G windscreens by 21 percent.
Located in Building 378, the generators and GCU shop not only doubled its GCU throughput in FY 2019, but also achieved a zero balance of backordered IPG-1 GCUs. Further, the shop increased its throughput of silicon controlled rectifiers (which convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC)) by 36 percent.
The landing gear shop accomplished a 65 percent reduction in its TAT during FY 2019, and with the addition of two new milling machines to expand its capacity, resolved bottleneck issues that were hampering sub-component production.
In addition to the depot-level Mason Award, the annual SECDEF Maintenance Awards also recognize six winners from field-level maintenance units within three DOD categories: large, medium and small. Of those, one will be awarded the Phoenix Award, denoting the best of the best.
A SECDEF selection board will select the winners who will be honored in December during a ceremony scheduled in Kansas City, Mo.