Priority for Rafales MRO in Jordan |
| Helen Chachaty in Jordan |
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11 MAY 2017 | 488 words
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© French Air Force |
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With an average availability rate close to 95% and fewer than 1% of missions cancelled, the Rafales stationed at the forward air base (FAB) in Jordan and engaged in the Chammal mission are "perfect students". One of the explanations for this excellent figure rests with the fact that the French enclave, its fighters and so their MRO are an "absolute priority", both for spare parts and for munitions. Everything is set up to enable the eight fighters to carry out their reconnaissance or bombing missions in Iraq and Syria.
With around one hundred dedicated Rafale maintenance and repair personnel (Air and Navy) and thanks to their fast reactions and those of their crew, the FAB is able to honour the contract which specifies arrival at the area of operations in three hours. As the head of Rafale support explains, the mechanics divide up the workload between them according to flights, on-call for around twelve hours and so enable the fighters to take off at any time, day or night - the international coalition's planes are permanently flying missions in the skies above Iraq and Syria.
"We have an autonomous operations kit to enable us to carry out most MRO operations", highlights the technician, who explains that while this kit is not shared with the kit intended for the four Rafale Ms which arrived in Jordan one month ago, it goes without saying that each can "dip into" the other's kit. The main difficulty mentioned by maintenance staff is in procuring spare parts. This is a major logistical problem, despite the "regular rounds" by large carriers such as the A400M, which land in Jordan to delivery equipment, and the support from the base located in the United Arab Emirates, which also flies Rafales and has its own stock.
When questioned about the climate issues related to the Middle Eastern theatre, the technical support head says that they have not noted any particular breakdowns caused by the environment in particular. Of course, special attention is paid to the M88s and obviously inspections are more advanced, but are "shorter than in France".
As for the cells, while there are heavy demands on them, they are, however, subject to less erosion, due to the low number of missions carried out at low altitude. One other explanation is that the missions are "simpler": "In France, planes carry out several types of mission in a single flight: combat, terrain monitoring, low altitude and so on. This is not the case here, which enables us to preserve a minimum cell potential", details the mechanic. She has been posted to the Jordan base for two months and says that she likes that a "common detachment" has been put in place with the crews, which strengthens cohesion between flight crews, as the pilot's objective is to carry out their mission while the mechanic's is to guarantee that the plane is available. |
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