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Air Mobility Battlelab's deployable hydraulic lift initiative aims to boost CRW capabilities

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
  • U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Public Affairs
FORT DIX, N.J. --  Contingency response wings throughout the Air Force rely on their ability to move people and cargo quickly for fast deployment. An Air Mobility Battlelab initiative is looking to make that process even easier. 

The battlelab, located in the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center, is addressing a CRW process for cargo where they do not have a deployable asset able to download rolling stock and palletized cargo from cargo loaders to the ground. They're doing this through the Deployable Hydraulic Lift Initiative, said Tech. Sgt. Joseph Jones, AMB's project manager for the initiative. 

"CRWs currently rely on in-place ramps, which can cause extreme delays in aircraft throughput," Sergeant Jones said. "When ramps have not been available, non-standard techniques were used which could have resulted in mishaps. Our proposed solution is a hydraulic lift able to handle pallet trains and provide download-to-ground capability for rolling stock." 

The Air Mobility Battlelab worked with the Chant Engineering Company of New Britain, Penn., to modify an existing hydraulic lifting device to make it more deployment friendly. The result is a stationary hydraulic lift platform capable of accepting air cargo pallet trains with rolling stock from the Halvorsen 25,000-pound capable cargo loader down to ground level. The hydraulic lift itself has a 25,000-pound load capacity. 

Once the lift was operational, the next step was to hold a demonstration. The AMB chose the 816th Global Mobility Squadron from the 621st Contingency Response Wing on McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. Also participating were subject matter experts from the Expeditionary Center's Mobility Operations School. 

"We had four main objectives for the demonstration," Sergeant Jones said. "We first wanted to see how the lift could move rolling stock from the Halvorsen loader to ground level. We also wanted to determine if rolling stock could be manually moved from a Halvorsen loader to the lift without the assistance of other material handling equipment."
They also looked to determine if the deployable hydraulic lift could fit on to a single pallet for airlift and if two trained Airmen could assemble the deployable lift in one hour. 

"On all the objectives, the criterion was met," Sergeant Jones said. "For example, on the assembly demonstration, the two Airmen put together the lift in 35 minutes which was well before our 60-minute time limit." 

Tech. Sgt. George Gonzalez, from the 816th GMS who led his squadron's participation in the demonstration, said the deployable lift will save contingency response Airmen time when loading and unloading planes. 

"It will help a lot - especially out in a deployed location," Sergeant Gonzalez said. "When we're deployed, we have to offload cargo from planes like the KC-10 (Extender), and without a lift like this it takes a lot of time. The lift is nice because we can assemble it quickly and pack it up to take with us rather easily as well. It really is a big timesaver."
Sergeant Jones said the demonstration showed the deployable hydraulic lift could make a real impact for contingency response Airmen. 

"The deployable hydraulic lift performed at, or above, all requirements demanded of it and was well received by others," Sergeant Jones said. "Our results gathered from the participants showed the system being safer, quicker and easier to use than non-traditional means." 

According to Lt. Col. Jeffrey Lathrop, AMB commander, the deployable hydraulic lift concept is now being recommended by the battlelab to Air Mobility Command for development of a fielding strategy. 

"The demonstration proved this idea has value and could greatly benefit field users," Colonel Lathrop said. 

The Air Mobility Battlelab was established in 2001 to identify and demonstrate the utility of innovative concepts with potential to enhance Mobility Air Force capabilities. AMB will deactivate in September 2008 as part of an Air Force cost-savings initiative.