New Ideas for Armor Company Maintenance Plans

In today’s Army, maintenance has become even more vital in sustaining readiness than ever before. Advancing technology such as the M1A2 increases our lethality on the battlefield but at the same time makes our equipment more susceptible to maintenance problems. But just at the time when maintenance is becoming more critical, many units are struggling with issues such as shrinking budgets and understrength maintenance platoons that make a maintenance program even more difficult. How can a company commander manage the competing demands of budget, time, and personnel, yet still run an effective maintenance program? The answer is to not bite off more than each company can chew, so to speak. And although this may seem obvious to many of you, there are many units out in the force attempting to do too much with too little (people, money, time). They ultimately pay the price when it is time to roll out the gate. A good company maintenance plan consists of two things: accomplishment of scheduled maintenance checks and services, and soldier training on maintenance-related tasks. The first element ensures that all equipment, including stand-alone equipment such as radios and weapons, receive the Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services (PMCS) required by the -10/-20 manuals. These include crew-level inspections, periodic services, and oil analysis (AOAP) sampling. The second element ensures that all 44 ARMOR — September-October 1999 soldiers are knowledgeable enough on the associated equipment to perform quality maintenance checks. Planning is critical to any maintenance program. Field training is conducted according to the standards of 25-101, Battle Focused Training; there is no reason why maintenance does not deserve the same attention. The commander must consider several factors when planning maintenance periods. First, the old motor stables concept, where the entire company marches to the motor pool weekly and performs maintenance, is an impossibility for many units today. Let’s face it: in today’s world of red cycle taskings, training holidays, Sergeant’s Time, Family Time, and training dictated by higher (to name only a few), it may seem hard to find time to breathe, let alone perform quality maintenance. However, just because the entire company cannot come to the motor pool at one time does not mean that a company cannot have an effective maintenance program. Table 1 outlines a sample monthly maintenance training schedule that works around training, duty cycle, and services. You will notice in Table 1 that instead of finding one set day for company “command maintenance,” the commander plans platoon maintenance periods. This has several advantages. First, the company and platoons still have time to execute other training during the week. It also lightens the work load of the maintenance team, which more than likely is understrength due to critical 63/45-series MOS shortages. Last, it more evenly distributes the work load of the ULLS/PLL clerk, who normally finds it impossible to update an entire company set of 5988-Es in a timely manner. Of course, this system is harder for the company commander and XO to control, but platoon leaders and platoon sergeants are more than capable of executing this level of training. If they are not, then it is an excellent training tool for the company commander to teach accountability and maintenance concepts to his platoon leadership. Second, the company commander must ensure that the maintenance platoon can support his plan. While the cavalry troop is a wonderful thing, because the commander actually owns his mechanics, the regular armor community does not have this luxury. The maintenance team is often torn between supporting its assigned company and BMO/HHC commitments. The only way to defeat this problem is to plan maintenance training with the maintenance team chief so that he can deconflict it with his maintenance platoon training schedule. The maintenance team chief is an integral player and should be a regular attendee at company training meetings. The executive officer should provide that critical link between the maintenance platoon (BMO) and the company to ensure that the battalion’s assets adequately support the company maintenance team and that the battalion commander’s maintenance priorities are met. The bottom line is that maintenance training, just like other training, should be planned and resourced at least six weeks in advance. We do this for other training events and should give maintenance training equal priority. Also, by decentralizing maintenance into smaller elements, such as platoons, the company commander makes scheduling easier and lightens the work load of his maintenance team and ULLS/PLL clerk. Actually finding the time to conduct maintenance training is only half the battle of effective maintenance. The other portion is training subordinates to maintain properly. Focused maintenance training is vital to sustaining the force. A company will not conduct quality maintenance periods if its soldiers are not proficient at performing PMCS, diagnostic checks, and other maintenance-related procedures. All soldiers should receive basic PMCS and administrative skills from the unit’s driver training program. But special emphasis is required to teach soldiers the specifics of technical areas such as air induction, mine plows, or the fire control system, that the -10 manual may not cover in sufficient detail. A matrix like Table 2 can help commanders structure maintenance training. Training

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Week 1 1st Plt- M/A

COMPANY

TRAINING

2nd Plt- W A.M. - SGT’s Time P.M. - Family Time BN Training Holiday Week 2 1st Plt- AUX HQ Plt - M/A 3rd Plt - M/A

COMPANY

TRAINING

2nd Plt- AUX Week 3

COMPANY

TRAINING

1st Plt - S 2nd Plt - M/A 3rd Plt – W HQ Plt – W 3rd Plt- AUX HQ Plt- AUX Week 4

RED CYCLE

TASKINGS

Table 1 - Sample Maintenance Training Schedule M - Monthly PMCS W - Weekly PMCS A - AOAP sample AUX - Weapons, NVGs S - Services 1st Plt - S ARMOR — September-October 1999 45

A good company maintenance plan ensures that quality maintenance continues when units go to the field. In the photo at right, an M1A2 crew cleans their air filters during an NTC Rotation. Photo: Greg Stewart should be executed at platoon level by knowledgeable NCOs, unless time does not permit or there is no one qualified to teach the subject. The XO can coordinate for the maintenance team chief or other specialized personnel, such as the battalion maintenance technician, to teach specific subjects if there is no one qualified in the company. Each class should be immediately followed by hands-on application supervised by the platoon leadership. Platoons can be left to schedule these classes independently, ensuring that they meet the suspense listed, and completion can be tracked by the XO (or reported during company training meetings). Monthly intervals are listed here, but depending on the company training schedule and level of maintenance proficiency, the interval could change accordingly. The matrix can be easily focused to support other training events as well. For instance, using Table 2 as an example, the AACs, fire control checks, and prep-to-fire checks might be part of preparation for gunnery in February. Companies can very easily execute these classes in a field environment as well, instead of falling into the all too common trap of performing quality maintenance only in garrison. In conclusion, it may seem that the result of today’s increased OPTEMPO, decreased resources, and many competing demands for an armor company’s time is that maintenance suffers. This article discusses several ideas that differ from the traditionally accepted methods of company command maintenance but have proven successful in maintaining equipment and increasing readiness rates. The success of plans like Table 1 depend on the commander establishing maintenance as a priority in his company and scheduling the time for subordinates to conduct effective maintenance. The ability of subordinates to operate somewhat independently is also a crucial factor. Lastly, the success of any maintenance plan depends on the level of proficiency of every soldier in performing Preventive Checks and Services. If a company commander sends his soldiers to the motor pool for an entire day to check MlAl air induction systems, but does not accurately define the standards for checking them, he has only wasted his most precious resource — time. A maintenance skill training plan like Table 2 can address any weaknesses in the company, allowing them to make effective use of what little maintenance time can be “carved” out of an already hectic schedule. Hopefully, by integrating concepts similar to those discussed above, company commanders can conduct good, quality maintenance and not pause at the LD, waiting for a tank repair. Author’s Note: This article is actually an adaptation of the battalion maintenance plan planned and executed by 1-13 AR at Fort Riley in 1997. The author is indebted to LTC Rick Jung, CW2 (Ret.) Roger Behrens, and MSG Steve Murphy for their assistance in developing this program.

CPT Paul Taylor was commissioned in Armor in 1993 from the U.S. Military Academy. He served as a tank platoon leader, company XO, and battalion maintenance officer for 3-37 Armor (later 1-13 Armor) at Ft. Riley, Kansas. He later commanded E/1-81 Armor and HHC/1-81 Armor at Ft. Knox, Ky. He is currently assigned as the S-3 for 3rd Army (ARCENT) forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May

TANKS

AACs Fire control system Prep-to-fire checks Brake system Steering system Suspension Walk track Air induction system NBC system Mineplow

LIGHT

TRACKS

Heaters Cooling system Brake system Steering system Suspension Walk track Air intake system Drive lines, prop shafts, U-joints Check fuel lines

HEAVY

WHEELS

Heaters Cooling system Brake system Steering system Suspension Tires Air intake system Drive lines, prop shafts, U-joints Check seat belts Check lights horn

LIGHT

WHEELS

Heaters Cooling system Brake system Steering system Suspension Tires Air intake system Drive lines, prop shafts, U-joints Check seat belts Check lights horn

SUSPENSE

COB 13 Jan COB 28 Feb COB 28 Mar COB 18 Apr COB 30 May

Jun Jul Aug Sep

TANKS

Radios and mounts Intercom Batteries Charging System C/S gun tube C/S breech Walk track Suspension

LIGHT

TRACKS

Radios and mounts Intercom Batteries Charging system Check weapon mounts Walk track Suspension

HEAVY

WHEELS

Fuel/Water separator Drive belts Batteries Charging system Hose reels Static reels Crane mechanisms

LIGHT

WHEELS

Radios and mounts Drive belts Batteries Charging system Check ring mounts Check troop seats Gen/Starter brackets Winches

SUSPENSE

COB 27 Jun COB 20 Jul COB 29 Aug COB 24 Sep Table 2 - Sample Maintenance Focused Training Matrix

46 ARMOR — September-October 1999