BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
The Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services site in Jacksonville, Florida, recently assisted in the demilitarization efforts of 72 individual aircraft center barrels.
These barrels are from older and obsolete models of the multirole F-18 combat aircraft housed on Naval Air Station Jacksonville. Due to their size, the Disposition Services field site elected to leave the barrels in their original location rather than bringing them to their warehouse only to then have to send them out once again to Anniston, Alabama.
“We worked it out to where they could keep them because we just didn’t have the space,” said Thomas Hamilton, a local disposal service representative. “A ‘remain in place’ agreement was used where they manage the item and maintain custody but put them into our inventory. We do those types of agreements for very large items when it’s just too hard to transport the item here – and then again to the DEMIL center. For very large items we screen in advance and decide whether we can keep it in place or not.”
This method of managing items increases efficiencies which is important when considering the number of shipments this operation required. Due to the large size of these aircraft parts, the site used 23 flatbed trucks to transport the items. Staff placed three disassembled barrels on each truck and scheduled six shipments per week between April and May.
Sending these types of items to the DEMIL center in Anniston is one of the daily functions of the field sites throughout the region as they work to ensure national security is maintained regarding demilitarized equipment and vehicles.
The Jacksonville field site is considered a medium site and while aircraft parts are one of their mainstays in terms of equipment turn-ins this is not a typical piece of equipment they see according to Hamilton – who has been a member of DLA since 2011.