Workers began breaking ground near an old cruise missile facility at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., to make way for a new Falconer Combined Air Operations Center, scheduled to come online in July 2006. The new operations center will be the only continuously operational facility in the US, say Air Force officials. There are four Falconer CAOC weapon systems overseas. The $11.35 million facility will serve as the command and control location for Air Force South—the air and space element of US Southern Command.
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...