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RAF FAIRFORD, England — The 435th Air Ground Operations Wing Contingency Response Group airfield assessment team assessed the airfield here for the arrival of 37th Airlift Squadron forces, April 23.
The 12-member team, equipped with all-terrain vehicles and professional gear, did an initial sweep of the 10,000-foot runway and confirmed that nothing was on the surface to keep the remaining aircraft from landing.
“Our primary goal is the landing surface,” said Master Sgt. Thomas Franz, 435th CRG contingency airfield manager. “We will make an initial call back once we determine the landing surface is usable.”On the surface, a runway may appear suitable to land aircraft, but until the engineer conducts his test to assess the strength of each layer, underneath the asphalt or concrete, there is no way to know how the landing surface will react to an aircraft landing. “[The engineers] are one of the key parts of the assessment team,” said Lt. Col. Rhett Champagne, 435th Air Mobility Squadron commander. “They’ll test the strength of the soil underneath the pavement. If the pavement isn’t strong enough you can’t land.”
The assessment, which can normally take anywhere from two to six hours, was completed in half the time. “We performed an initial runway opening,” said Staff Sgt. Jesse Stokes, 435th Security Forces Squadron civil engineer. “We knew we had to get this runway open as quickly as possible to bring on the follow-on forces.”
With this 10,000-foot runway, the team assessed the areas necessary to complete their task. “We assessed the runway for the parts we needed,” said Champagne. “We needed to know the aircraft could land and park. Then we would assess the rest of the runway.”
