The strategically important and heavily used multi-service US base in the Horn of Africa now has a safer air traffic control situation thanks to a Containerized Airport Surveillance Radar installed recently by a team of airmen from two commands. Eight 205th Engineering and Installation Squadron airmen from Will Rogers ANGB, Okla., and two members of the Air Force Flight Standards Agency from Ramstein AB, Germany, worked to install the AN/GPN-27 radar and a shelter at US Navy Base Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. The new system, which replaces the previous deployable short-term and short-range radar, “provides a long-term, enduring air traffic control radar for a vastly improved safety impact on the local air traffic management,” SMSgt. Anthony Potter, 205 EIS superintendent and the project team chief, said. The team of airmen managed the entire process, from a site survey last November, to arranging shipment of the radar from Charleston, S.C., to installation at Djibouti, despite 125-degree heat and some equipment setbacks, Potter said in an Air Force release.
The six-week government shutdown did not affect the hours flown by Air Force pilots, a service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine—avoiding what could have been a major blow at a time when flying hours are already lower than they have been in decades.
