621 CRW and 305 MXS Carry the Torch for C-208 Air Advisors
While the U.S. Air Force does not own or operate any C-208s, the aircraft remains the Department of State's (DoS) partner-nation aircraft of choice for security, counter-insurgency, and ISR operations across Africa and Latin America. With the inactivation of the 818th and 571st Mobility Support Advisory Squadrons, the Air Force's dedicated pool of specialized Air Advisor maintainers has dissolved, transferring that entire capability burden to qualified technicians within the 2A series Air Force Specialty Codes.
Even with the dedicated squadrons inactivated, the Air Force is retaining specialized skillsets involved in Air Advising. “The Air Staff is analyzing how to get the most of these capabilities in support of current priorities,” said Maj. Gen. John Klein, who previously oversaw the service’s air advisor units as commander of the Air Force Expeditionary Center. “We are shifting from a dedicated model [of air advising] to one where they use their expertise while embedded in units across the USAF… We are still committed to engaging with our partner nations to improve airpower capabilities that support [National Defense Strategy] priorities and ensure all of our allies and partners are well integrated.”
The team consisted of nine Airmen, including five crew chiefs and four sheet metal specialists from both the 621st CRW and the 305th MXG, in order to build and validate more multi-capable candidates for future air advisor missions.
“The training was conducted to ensure maintenance technicians understand basic pre-flight requirements and can efficiently assess aircraft conditions,” said Tech. Sgt. Will Chen, 305th Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural repair noncommissioned officer in charge. “Following the shutdown of the MSAS units and the loss of dedicated dispatch personnel, this training provides the essential knowledge to sustain fleet health and expand the pool of dispatchable technicians when required.”
The training also focused on austere maintenance, production team tasks, and flightline sortie generation utilizing the C-208. Unlike standard flying training, the primary focus was on the ground-level mechanics of keeping a foreign military aircraft airworthy under austere conductions.
“Contingency Response forces are designed to be the first in to open airfields, requiring maintainers to be multi-capable Airmen, who can service more than just standard U.S. Air Force cargo aircraft like the C-17 Globemaster III or C-130 Hercules,” said Senior Master Sgt. Roscoe Tamondong, 621st Contingency Response Group training superintendent. “There will be more training in the future but the timing will rely entirely on opportunistic scheduling. As the CRW does not own any C-208s, the wing plans to actively monitor flight schedules and flag any incoming contracted or transient C-208s routed through the region.”
Whenever aircraft become available, the 621st CRG plans for future training to include production exercises, aircraft refueling, and austere environment troubleshooting to prevent partner-nation support skills from decaying.
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