Fleet Readiness Center East, North Carolina’s largest aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul and technical services provider, marked a new chapter March 25 as the facility stood up a new satellite operation at the North Carolina Global TransPark in Kinston.

Fleet Readiness Center East recently accepted delivery of an F-35 airframe transported by barge from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, to FRCE facilities aboard MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina.

Working together with the F-35 Joint Program Office, FRCE received approval to accept the stripped down airframe for use in maintenance training and engineering testing, which will allow for the development of improved tooling, maintenance procedures and sustainment practices.

Following a string of success in reducing maintenance, repair and overhaul turnaround times on V-22 Osprey aircraft, Fleet Readiness Center East has set its sights on improving turnaround times for the H-53 heavy lift helicopter.

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David H. Berger and Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Troy E. Black visited Fleet Readiness Center East March 15 to receive updates regarding the support FRCE provides to Marine Corps aviation and the facility’s current status of operations.

Berger and Black toured the facility with FRCE Commanding Officer Capt. Mark E. Nieto and Executive Director Mark Meno. The itinerary focused on the V-22 Osprey, F-35 Lightning II and future plans for F-35 maintenance and capabilities at FRCE.

If you’ve ever taken a training class for a job-related task, you may have found that you’ve forgotten a step or two when the time came to apply what you learned to your job. But aviation maintenance professionals at Fleet Readiness Center East may soon be able to take their instructor with them to the hangar floor – at least virtually – using augmented reality technology.

When it comes to meeting the needs of the warfighter, Fleet Readiness Center East has made great strides in focusing efforts on critical needs and reducing the wait for high-priority items. By incorporating process changes and data visualization tools, the facility has reduced accountable backorders by 76 percent and high-priority backorders by 77 percent since the start of fiscal year 2019.

Fleet Readiness Center East is an organization on the move. Parts and components have to be carried from shop to shop. Aircraft must be towed in and out of hangars. And, three distant detachments have to be maintained from the main facility aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, requiring everything from office supplies to aircraft wings.

Fleet Readiness Center East marked a milestone with the induction of the first F-35B Lightning II aircraft to undergo laser peening modifications, and leaders anticipate the new workload will keep the facility engaged for the next several years.

During this time, experts will apply the high-tech procedure to select F-35B aircraft flown by the United States Marine Corps, strengthening the frames of the short takeoff-vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 Lightning II and helping the aircraft reach its full life limit.

Every field of effort has a standard to beat. Track and field had the four-minute mile. For baseball, the bar is 762 career home runs. For the V-22 Osprey production line at Fleet Readiness Center East, there was the 300-day turnaround time for returning the aircraft to their fleet customers.

On January 15, the V-22 line broke that elusive 300-day mark when the team returned its most recently completed aircraft in 297 days, far below the negotiated standard of 420 days.

Eric Jackson doesn’t consider mentoring a collateral duty. To him, it’s something he does every day for all the people who work with him. He just calls it leading by example.

It’s also something at which he excels, and his commitment to developing the skills and capabilities of his team earned Jackson the title of Fleet Readiness Center East Mentor of the Year. Naval Air Systems Command leadership recognized Jackson and other NAVAIR Mentors of the Year during a virtual celebration of National Mentoring Month held Jan. 26.