Without avionics systems such as navigation, flight controls and threat detection, aircraft in the Air Force's inventory wouldn't be able to deliver air superiority around the world.
The 365th Training Squadron at Sheppard Air Force Base trains avionics maintainers to trouble shoot those highly advanced systems, be they on a fighter jet, a cargo plane or a remotely piloted aircraft, to keep up with today's demanding operations tempo.
"The airmen that we turn out are at the heart and soul of maintaining the brains of the aircraft for every airframe," said Lt. Col. Eric Jackson, 365th Training Squadron commander. "If you don't have the maintainers, then the pilots walk to work."
Jackson and his team of 198 military and civilian instructors want to keep those pilots flying, and they do so by producing about 1,800 highly skilled active duty, Guard, Reserve, international and civilian avionics maintainers each year. The avionics maintainers gain valuable hands-on experience in the 365th TRS before they are sent to their first operational base.
"We train the airmen to be able to identify what is broken by teaching them how to troubleshoot avionics systems," Jackson said. "That's a skill you have to have above everything else."
Avionics maintainers first attend a preliminary course at Keesler Air Force Base before they arrive at the 365th Training Squadron to take avionics maintenance courses that last from 12 weeks to five-and-a-half months.
Maj. Ric Cisneros, 365th TRS director of operations, said the squadron is made up of three main flights, or divisions, including fighter avionics, heavy aircraft avionics and test stations where avionics systems are taken to be tested to determine which component needs to be repaired.
As aircraft have advanced, so too have the avionics in the aircraft.
Although Jackson said diagnostic troubleshooting has remained the same, the avionics systems on newer, fifth-generation fighter aircraft like the F-22 Raptor and Joint Strike Fighter are digital and are more complex, with aircraft management systems that provide a centralized control for multiple complex systems.
"The fundamentals have not really changed, but what has changed is as we're going into those fifth-generation fighters, it's less looking for broken wires and more looking for broken bits," Jackson said.
Along with producing excellent avionics maintainers, Jackson said the squadron members participate in many events in support of the local community including volunteering for Christmas in Action, running in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and participating in the Adopt-A-Highway program. The squadron also claims bragging rights for winning the Joint Warrior Challenge last year and this year at Sheppard, a physical challenge competition between the sister services on base.
Jackson said it is easy to complete these tasks because of the caliber of permanent party instructors and student airmen who come through the squadron.
"We have some very talented airmen who are smart young folks and they are all very well-disciplined," Jackson said. "I credit their families for that and want to say thank you to the parents for allowing their sons and daughters to be a part of our team."
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