Lt. Col. Steve Bowen at Spangdahlem AB, Germany, reached a milestone 3,000 flying hours in the F-16 Viper earlier this week. It took him 15.5 years. Bowen currently serves as commander of the 52nd Operational Support Squadron at Spangdahlem.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...