B-2 Shelter Test Complete

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WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. - What's round, coated with PVC fabric and able to protect a billion-dollar weapon system?

The B-2 Shelter System located near the north end of Whiteman's runway would fit that description and it has just finished its B-2 aircraft phase of testing.

The unique shelter, built to size for an equally unique aircraft, is part of a program headed by the B-2SS Program Office at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in conjunction with the B-2 System Program Office at Tinker AFB, Okla. and contracted to ASFI, from Crystal River, Fla.

The project, which has been here since November 2000, meets the Air Force's requirement for a portable structure that could house the B-2 and accommodate low-observable maintenance - maintenance of the B-2's stealthy surface - in a deployed location.

The recent testing involved the placement of a B-2 in the shelter for evaluating the shelter's ability to support the demanding environmental requirements for doing LO maintenance tasks similar to what would be done in a permanent B-2 dock.

From the maintainers' standpoint, the B-2SS exceeded expectations.

"The maintenance crews repeatedly commented that working in the shelter was as good or better than working in our permanent B-2 docks," said Capt. Arthur Ford, 509th Logistics Group Research Engineering Flight, wing coordinator for Whiteman's resources for the B-2SS testing. "They liked that it had better lighting, better environmental controls and more space than our existing hangars."

More space is right. The shelter covers more than 26,000 square feet, a 30 percent increase to the square footage of Whiteman's permanent docks. The larger footprint, however, is a design byproduct of the shelter's shape.

"The designers had to meet certain structural strength and aircraft clearance requirements for the B-2's wings, which made the turtle shell shape taller and wider than it otherwise would have been," Ford said. "But this has turned out to be a good thing for the maintainers. They can now store extra equipment in the shelter that would otherwise have no place in a forward location."

The shelter's storage capacity was put to the test during recent thunderstorms. Six T-38s were stored in the shelter for protection and took up less than half of the available space.

The shelter was built to specifications to protect the B-2 from harsh environments and to provide a proper work place for B-2 maintenance. The structure can withstand 110-mile-per-hour winds and 40 pounds per square foot of snow load, and also provide constant control of temperature and humidity levels, essential for LO maintenance on the aircraft.

For all its durability under environmental stress, the structure also had to be made portable for transportation to and construction at a forward location.

Either by sealift or airlift, the shelter can be broken down and moved in approximately 24 standard 8 feet x 8 feet x 20 feet shipping containers. The shelter can then be erected out of its aluminum trusses, steel connecting plates and base plates, and two layers of PVC-coated vinyl fabric, called cladding.

For its construction here, members from the 49th Materiel Maintenance Group, Bare Base Unit, at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., built the shelter as if they were at an FOL. People from every group in the 509th supported the construction and then stepped in to use the shelter to test its usability under normal B-2 operations.

Staff Sgt. Steven Mersky, a 509th Maintenance Squadron LO maintainer, was part of a six-person crew who worked on a B-2 while it was inside the shelter.

"This is definitely a good thing," he said. "Our job of finding defects on the aircraft's surface was helped by its overall brightness and the extra space made it much easier to maneuver our B-2 stands around the jet. It's a win-win situation."

If future tests go as expected, the Air Force plans to buy five B-2SS shelters for use in two possible FOLs to help solidify the B-2's global mission.

"The B-2 shelter system gives us the flexibility of a forward presence at a level we've never had before," Ford said. "Our turnaround time will be reduced and that will greatly increase the strength of our wing's global reach."

By 2nd Lt. Bryan Edmonson
Public Affairs - Whiteman Spirit News
© 2001 WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE