Sustainment experience aids Colonel at RSO

  • Published
  • By Daryl Mayer, AFLCMC Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio (AFLCMC) – The Rapid Sustainment Office is the organization under the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center charged with transforming the operations and sustainment enterprise vital to the world’s most advanced Air Force.
 
It makes sense they would look for people with a diversity of experience to include a background in sustaining Air Force systems. 
 
Col. Nicole Ruff-Lehman serves as the Military Deputy Program Executive Officer for the RSO and began her career working aircraft sustainment on the bomber fleet at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma.  
 
While working supply issues for the B-2 in her first job there, an issue arose with cracks in the windshields. 
 
“Our windshields were cracking and we were going through them and had to quickly reconstitute the production line which is not as easy as it sounds, on a platform that is so specialized as a stealth bomber,” Ruff-Lehman said.  “And, then, my second job at Tinker was at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center working B-52s and we all know that the aircraft's life has continually been extended out, so we were requesting replacement parts and spares from the Boneyard [309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona].”
 
That experience proved the adage that systems are acquired in years, but sustained for decades.  Later, working as the Materiel Leader on the B-21 during its early development, she was able to draw on her bomber experience.
 
“We had product support sustainment baked in from the beginning and had to balance every development decision with the back-end support and what that would be. So, just an example of a program that's doing things right and ensuring that sustainment is not an afterthought,” she said.
 
Today, in the RSO, their focus is increasing readiness by identifying, applying and scaling technologies to accelerate and streamline sustainment operations for the flight line and the depot maintainers, which are their primary customers.  The aim is to reduce sustainment costs, which is about 70% of the weapons lifecycle, through technology adoption. 
 
The RSO currently is looking to technologies like additive manufacturing, which includes 3D-printed parts, automation robots to accelerate repairs, and Condition Based Maintenance Plus, seeking to reduce unscheduled maintained time – just to name a few.   
 
To hear the full conversation, you can watch Leadership Log on YouTube at https://youtu.be/L8fqS1GWAgU.  You can also listen by searching “Leadership Log” on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Overcast, Radio Public or Breaker.