Damage to an aircraft is not always obvious to the naked eye: Miniscule cracks, warping, and separation within laminates and parts are all potential safety hazards.

To hunt down unseen damage and prevent part failure, artisans of the non-destructive inspection (NDI) program aboard Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) employ an eclectic array of tooling and technology designed to pinpoint defects without harming the aircraft or its parts.

Fleet Readiness Center East employees who come up with a money-saving idea have a chance to earn a portion of that savings, under the depot’s Beneficial Suggestion Program. Leaders credit the program with generating cost-saving ideas while it rewards suggestors for their innovation and hard work.

Created by the John McCain National Defense Authorization Act of 2019, a committee of eight aviation and transportation safety experts have been tasked with identifying the causes of and ways to avoid aviation accidents by going from site to site and talking with everyone in the field, from senior commanders to trainers and maintainers.

Nancy Andrews, Senior Services Manager for Services and Program Executive Officer for Combat and Mission Support, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, visited the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Fast Acquisition Solutions to Enable Readiness (FASTER) Team Oct. 10 to express appreciation for its six-month-long effort to expand the Contracted Maintenance, Modification, Aircrew, and Related Service (CMMARS) contract to include the Air Force.

The ability to effectively communicate how one’s skills, experiences and leadership qualities best meet the needs of an organization during a job interview is a result of preparation and practice. That’s according to a panel of Naval Air System Command (NAVAIR) senior hiring managers during an Oct. 3 workshop entitled, “Acing the Interview: Practical Steps to Getting the Job You Want.”

As the impact of the Naval Sustainment System (NSS) continues to bolster production throughout the command and increase fleet readiness, milestones often arise for those who work with the crucial components that directly affect the mission status of an aircraft.

“Last week, we actually hit zero issue-priority-group-ones (IPG1) on generator control units (GCU). I don’t know when the last time it was zero IPG1s,” said Rick Pfeiffer, deputy IPT lead of the GCU shop at Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW).

Fleet Readiness Center East’s commitment to safety has earned the depot designation as a Star Site in the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).

The recognition makes FRCE one of fewer than 60 facilities across the entire Department of Defense to hold Star Site status, and the only Naval Air Systems Command facility to earn the distinction.

Alyssa Zamora, a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) materials engineer assigned to Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW), is the recipient of the 2019 A. Bryan Lasswell Award for Fleet Support.

Sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the award recognizes individuals who provide exceptional support to the Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard forces based in San Diego.

An advanced development engineer at NAVAIR recently received a Department of Defense award honoring his contributions to fleet aircraft.

Shawn Thompson received the Department of the Navy 2019 Secretary of Defense Award for Outstanding Department of Defense (DoD) Service Members and Civilian Employees with Disabilities at a ceremony at the Pentagon Oct. 3.

Fleet Readiness Center East marked a maintenance milestone August 15 when a tug pulled a completely assembled AV-8B Harrier to Marine Attack Training Squadron 203. The departure marked the completion of the last U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B inducted at FRCE for Planned Maintenance Interval 1, which was the 121st AV-8B PMI-1 since the depot inducted its first in June 2003.