By Cmdr. Rusty Medford, Common Support Equipment program office & Rob Koon, AIR 1.0 Public Affairs Officer

NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, Patuxent River, Md. - The new and improved Hydraulic Power Supplies (HPS) are rolling off the production line and will soon be available for Fleet use.

Hydraulic International Inc. of Chatsworth, Calif. is steadily producing the A/M27T-15 diesel (DHPS), the A/M27T-14 electric (EHPS) and the A/M37M-11 Hydraulic Fluid Purifiers (HFP) at a record pace. The new HPS units will arrive at Fleet Training Commands (FTC) beginning this month with additional deliveries to the Fleet continuing over the next few years.

The initial FTCs receiving the new HPS units are Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island, NAS Jacksonville, and NAS Lemoore. Current plans call for a total of 669 DHPS, 263 EHPS and 231 HFP units to be delivered.

The Hydraulic Power Supplies are mobile units that provide a source of hydraulic power for the check out, maintenance and servicing of the aircraft hydraulic systems while the aircraft is on the ground. Otherwise, the aircraft would have to run its engines in order to check the hydraulic systems.

All Navy and Marine Corps aircraft use ground hydraulic power supplies to support the maintenance, servicing, testing troubleshooting of the flight control and utility hydraulic systems of the aircraft.

The current generation of Navy hydraulic power supplies was designed in the mid-1960s, and was designed to provide hydraulic fluid flow at 3,000 pounds per square-inch (PSI). Newer aircraft hydraulic systems for the F/A-18E/F, EA-18G and Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) require fluid flow of more than 4,000 PSI.

The new units are capable of providing hydraulic pressures up to 5,000 PSI. The power supplies are used in conjunction with the Hydraulic Fluid Purifiers (HPF) to clean contaminated aircraft hydraulic systems.

This project, managed by NAVAIR’s Common Support Equipment program office (PMA 260) will replace the existing HPS, A/M27T-5/5A (diesel) and A/M27T7/7A (electric) that are approaching the end of their useful life and are becoming more difficult to support. This project is part of CSE’s Reduction in Total Ownership Costs (RTOC) initiative.

Photo 1: Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232 “Red Devils” using the new HPS on the flight Deck of the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) during a Fleet evaluation. Photo by Steve Barrett.

Photo 2: Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41 “Black Aces” performing a landing gear test using the new HPS in the hangar bay of the USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Photo by Steve Barrett.

Photo 3: Hydraulic International Inc., preparing the new HPS for shipping from their factory in Chatsworth Calif. Photo by Joe Cruz.

Photo 4: Hydraulic International Inc., shipping the first HPS units from their factory in Chatsworth Calif. Photo by Bahman Seifollahi, Hydraulics International Inc.