“THE CREATION OF THE ROCKET LAUNCHER TESTER”
A Classic In-STEP story from the 463RD AAMS
The creation of the rocket launcher tester started when this Wing happened to encounter several unexploded bombs and blind rockets during the conduct of close air support operations of the different tactical aircrafts of this unit. Spearheaded by the Squadron commander of this unit, a study was initiated and conducted in order to find out what causes the problem. Every possibilities and critical points in the system to include also the air munitions such as the 2.75 rockets was studied.
After a thorough research, study and investigation on the probable causes of the problems, this unit came up with a conclusion and was able to enumerate the probable factors that could have greatly affected the performance of the rocket launchers. Listed hereunder are the factors that were considered:
- The launchers are dirty. (i.e. filled with carbon deposits, corrosion, oily and other sediments).
- Contact spring is broken.
- Cable harness from the cockpit of the aircraft to launcher is defective.
With the above findings, the armament specialist of this unit headed by SSg Avellana came up with an idea of inventing a rocket launcher tester that has a capability of eliminating the abovementioned factors and can confirm the serviceability of the rockets.
Because of this invention, armament specialists can now easily determine if the armament system of the aircraft is operational (i.e. from cockpit to the launcher), if the launcher is able to produce the required power output to launch the rocket and be able to determine if the contact spring of the launcher is still engage with the contact band of the rocket motor which is very critical since most of our launchers has already exceeded the maximum number of usage.
The reliability (Integrity) displayed by the specialist of this unit, their dedication in completing the invention using only the available resources and with their spare time sacrificed (Service) and their joint effort (Teamwork) to come up with an invention that will ease up their workload, save time and even funds, has resulted in a very useful and reliable invention and instrument that is presently being used by this unit (Excellence). The Professionalism displayed by these personnel has contributed to the success of this invention. This truly is a classic example of In-STEP story.
