Maintainers go 'green' with electric vehicles

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Spencer Gallien
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  The 23rd Equipment Maintenance Squadron recently began testing electric vehicles here in an effort to help the Air Force go "green."

Moody became a test-bed for the program after a request was made by the Advanced Power and Techonolgy Office at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., for the base to evaluate the positive and negative benefits of the environmentally-concious vehicles.

The base received two different electric platforms. The first vehicle is a cart that is used to shuffle parts and personnel back and forth from the flight line. The other vehicle is an electric munition loader, also known as a "jammer," which uses the same tools as any other gas-powered munitions loader, but is powered by an on-board electric source.

"When we received the proposal we saw some huge benefits in the program," said Maj. Richard Holifield, 23rd EMS operations officer. "You can look at the obvious benefits of cost effectiveness and low emissions, but there are also the noise-level and deployability aspects."

Deploying gas powered vehicles involves a lot of "prep" work, said Major Holifield. In order for the vehicle to be loaded onto a plane or truck, you must remove some of the fluids from the vehicle and perform many inspections. When loading an electric vehicle, these checks are minimal so it's basically "plug and play."

The goal of the program is to provide feedback to AFMC to see if ordering the equipment is a viable option for the future.

"The testing has been an on-going process," said Master Sgt. Tad Robinson, 23rd EMS aerospace ground equipment section lead. "We continually send reports explaining what could be changed to make the vehicle a better purchase for the Air Force."

The sergeant also pointed out that any of the complaints the 23rd EMS has had about the vehicles have been minor and, overall, users have been extremely happy with the results.

Through the 23rd EMS testing, the unit believes this is another step towards the Air Force's continual effort to take care of the planet, said Major Holifield.

"This opens up avenues to test for more cost-effective, long-term environmentally-friendly energy sources," he said. "From this point on, we are beginning to look at solar power, more energy-efficient lighting and any other form of energy that the future may hold.

"We've really only scratched the surface of what we would like to do," he added. "These vehicles are cost-effective, environmentally friendly and easy to deploy. This is potentially a win-win situation for all of us."