THE ROLE OF AMERICA’S DEPOT IN FUTURE CONFLICT By COL Kevin J. Consedine

The Corpus Christi Army Depot’s (CCAD) primary function is to sustain the current fleet and maintain the lethality of Army Aviation. The perception of most depots and arsenals within the Organic Industrial Base (OIB) is that of citadels far from the tactical edge where critical sustainment needs are most required – units must come to the depot for support. Over the last ten years, thousands of CCAD teammates deployed worldwide to provide artisan support to Aviation Warfighters. With respect to Warfighter support and building combat ready formations on future battlefields, CCAD brings the depot to the unit.

My first car was a 1993 Honda Civic. My father told me that car would run for ever provided I changed the oil and kept up with routine services. He stressed that if you do routine maintenance routinely, the car will be ready when you need it most. A similar axiom could be applied to the Army’s fleet of rotary wing plat forms. If properly maintained, the average life cycle of an aircraft exceeds 25 years. Considering the reliance on the current fleet to be viable and lethal be yond 2040, predictable funding for aviation sustainment is critical.

The Future Long Range Assault Air craft (FLRAA) is the future, but we cannot neglect the present if we want the fleet ready when we need it most. The depot’s expeditionary capacity represents a critical capability in future fights where supply chains will be extensive and interior lines of support unlikely. However, this capability is predicated on the depot’s people and continuous, predictable funding to accomplish CCAD’s key tasks of supporting the Warfighter and building combat-ready formations.

Supporting the Warfighter

Army Aviation has not met Operational Readiness (OR) goals across any platform in over a decade. At the height of the Global War on Terrorism, it was not unusual for a maintainer to acquire three years of experience in a single combat deployment. That is not the case today; gone are the days of launch-recover-launch in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Consequently, maintainer experience at the unit level is not what it was 10 years ago; the Army is asking fewer experienced maintainers to preserve the combat viability of a 20th century fleet on a 21st Century battlefield. To build sustainer proficiency, CCAD mentors over 200 Soldiers annually in various depot-level tasks through familiarization and engaging seasoned artisans. Working with Combat Aviation Brigades, CCAD can design a tailored curriculum of maintenance instruction specific to warfighter needs. Ultimately, Soldiers will acquire more confidence in their mission tasks and greater proficiency in the essential skills that keep the Army flying.

Building Combat Ready Formations

After decades of flight, every aircraft requires an overhaul or recapitalization to restore it to like-new condition or address obsolescence of select systems. Funding for such initiatives was reduced over the last ten years, leaving units with growing sustainment costs which reduce the buying power of the flight hour program. As sustainment funding declined, the expeditionary capability of CCAD increased in utilization. Since 2014, nearly 1,000 Depot Field Teams (DFTs) deployed, providing depot-level capability at the tactical edge. Over the last three years, DFT deployments surged to 66 in FY22, 99 in FY23 and nearly 90 in FY24.

DFTs represent a critical capability of America’s Depot and a means of cost savings and avoidance. In one instance, a DFT conducted a structural repair of an AH-64 on the Korean Peninsula for ~$150,000 using a portable blue light scanner. The same repair at the depot, largely due to travel and transportation costs, would have exceeded $7 million. An aging fleet will require seasoned mechanics, and CCAD can send them anywhere in the world to build unit readiness.

A modern OIB must be more than a distant method of support whose ways and means are rooted in the byzantine structure of the industrial revolution. Depots and arsenals must be responsive and available to the needs of their principal customer. Beyond 2040, Army Aviation will be challenged to sustain a fleet consisting of 80-year-old CH-47 airframes at one extreme and the V-280 Valor at the other. As a result, CCAD is undergoing a modernization strategy to engender the flexibility and agility necessary to bring critical assets of the depot to the unit. Success will require sustained energy and funding as part of the overall OIB modernization strategy. While the emerging capability of Army Aviation far exceeds that of my 1993 Honda Civic, the fundamentals of maintenance remain the same – invest in routine maintenance routinely; from tail rotor to tilt rotor.

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COL Kevin J. Consedine is the commander of Corpus Christi Army Depot in Corpus Christi, TX.

This article was published in the November 30, 2024 issue of Army Aviation Magazine: https://www.quad-a.org/Public/Magazine/ARMYAVIATION_Magazine.aspx.