European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 19, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday. February 19. 1990 the stars and stripes Page 9 Over Here in left photo. Anu Sta s Bob Wilson left and bub Stream repair a Pimer unit at its Mannheim fail ill. Ausla s of Giusepe Molinati right Hiir Kenn acpt or. Contractors help army maintain aircraft b Rosemary Sawyer stiff writer Meckenheim. West Germany for the . Army in Europe the perfect match of maintenance Soldier with aircraft has excl to be made so arms officials have turned to civil Ian contractor in Europe to serve As a $ 12nnlhon-a- car supplement to the soldiers. Soldiers trained in aircraft maintenance not on gel to do  gel to clean the hangars. Do Road guard  and a Hunch of other tasks that draw them away from their Axi Alion maintenance require ment said it. C of. James a verily who Heads i Saker s theater Axi Avion maintenance program. The requirement of the contract save that that civilian team will he there five Days a week eight hours a a Verity said. That Means thai nobody can be sick nobody can Lake Lac " to guarantee that consistency the civilian contractors staff their learns at Levels higher than Iuo percent. The Arr also contracts for off site aircraft work. Repair of component pans for example is done b con so Ruccione aeronautics. . A Span ish firm. Previously the components had to be shipped to depots in the United Stales for repair. Martin Marietta also repairs removable electronic aircraft components in Europe and do corp modifies helicopter models. Aguila International and trans eur Pean airline maintenance company team o jointly provide Field Tea  a maintenance Center in Brussels. Bel Gium for ins Exicen six repair work. The Field teams perform unit and intermediate level maintenance with army units in West German. Belgium and Holland. Aguila also provides Field teams to units in Italy. Greece and Turkey. Field teams go into the units and work just As if i d Lakin five Green suiters and Given them to that unit to work Only aviation  verily said. Hiring contract workers is not a new idea. It s cheaper than having soldiers do the work. Verily said. With contractors. " of Don t have to pay retirement. Urn Don t have in pay medical and Vou Don t have to Tram the  he  contractor furnishes it All Lor  Verity Calls contractors an easy plug to put in when Vou have a shortage of manpower and save they help the army maintain aircraft readiness. As verily put it tin Trade of comes in when Vou go to  All together contracts for the Thea Ter aviation maintenance program cos the army about $30 million a i a. Verity Siirid. Usa Keur hears Only about half of the Cost with most of the remainder picked up by the army aviation a steins omd. The aviation maintenance con races require workers to stay on the site As Long As the local commander can pro vide Salev. The threat of Wai does t worry Joe hag Gill. Aguila International s held operations manager.  of his co workers worked in Vietnam and the Middle East he said and thex know the  in the meantime the contract Woik ers provide swahili in to the business of maintaining aircraft  Apt. Mark i. Shelton. Contracting  s representative with co h. 7iiih  in in Mannheim. West Germany. Helicopters Hail for repairs us Ink Mun Barracks in Mannheim. Tunmer among Green Stilers is High with trained soldiers often leaving for private Industry after about four cars. Shyllon said. It s also hard for soldiers to find a balance Between training administrative duties and other commitments that compete for their  soldiers to private Industry is probably one of the bigger  said. They gel Oul because they want to work on Aires Al and Thuv Don want to put up with weight reduction and Ham is. And they d rather Mil be hassled about thai kind of thing " Baggott re ii div admits that former t a  make up most  s work Lone. The average Agusta Empl i a has 11 a car of work experience in his specially. Contract workers generally arc More experienced than their Soldier counterparts which Means repairs pet done taster. Verity  Bottom line. Verity . Is 1011 tract  is keeping our read Iii 1.--, .  i or example readiness for the All i 4 Apache runs Aboul Iii percent to 15 percent higher than Axhere there is no contract maintenance. Moreover fewer minor maintenance tasks Are being deferred because the contractors have the time to Xor them off. Which Means Sou have a safer Aires Al out there  Verity said. Martin Marietta s work in Europe Lux reduced repair Cycle time for removable electronic units Riv 85 percent and  aeronautical signed ils contract in september la .h7. It has turned Oul 45u reworked  expressed optimism about the future of contract maintenance inspire of probable troop reductions for Central l Europe. He said he d expect the support troops to go first Leav ing behind the  and of course someone will have to maintain the equipment for the fighter verily was less certain. As Long As we have aircraft in Europe there will Bea requirement to perform modifications and maintenance he said. Now whether we want to do that maintenance with contractor folks or whether we want to do it with Green suit folks that s a decision that has to be