Guam base building state-of-the-art,
automated fueling and defueling system
By Donovan Brooks, Guam
bureau chief
Donovan Brooks / Stars and Stripes
Tony Medeiros, project supervisor, stands above part of Andersen Air Force Base's
state-of-the-art automated fueling and defueling system. |
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam — Planes refueling at this Guam
base soon will be able to “gas and go.”
Under a $91 million project, the Air Force is building an automated
fueling and defueling system to help Andersen handle all types of aircraft.
The system, which includes “pumps” right on the flight
line, replaces the base’s 30-year-old fueling system that requires a fleet of trucks.
Under the current refueling system, “you have to defuel aircraft
with trucks, and then use other trucks to fuel the aircraft,” said Vernon Tobey of
the base’s civil engineering unit.
But the new constant-pressure system continuously circulates fuel to
prevent stagnation and basically allows aircraft to pull up to a gas pump for service,
reducing costs, he said.
Once complete, the Pacific Air Force’s biggest aircraft fuel
storage and servicing facility also will have a modern fueling system comparable to those
found at world’s top airports, Tobey said.
The project is being done in stages.
The $16 million first phase connected twin 20,000-barrel tanks to a
pump house, an underground pipeline and 20 fuel hydrants on a parking ramp, Tobey said.
The project has three more planned phases that each connect a set of
tanks to hydrants on about 25 percent of the airfield’s operating area.
A $15 million second phase has just started, and is scheduled for
completion in September 2002.
The new system can refuel everything from a small C-9 plane to a
stealth bomber.
“If you’re going to have an air base, you need a fueling
system,” and Andersen is getting the best there is, Tobey said.
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