Airmen at Fairchild Air Force Base, west of Spokane, are working on installing and upgrading what is known as the Instrument Landing System (ILS) on the flight line. 

The ILS is known as a ground-based instrument approach system that uses a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting arrays to provide precision guidance to aircraft as they approach and land on a runway. The system is used most often to assist landings when a pilot is relying mostly on the aircraft’s instruments, such as during reduced visibility due to rain, fog, or snow. 

Master Sgt. Trey Horn, 92nd Operation Support Squadron NCO in charge of airfield systems, says planning for the upgrades started last January. 

“We have certain requirements that need to be met before implementation can take place,” he says. “After those are met, we can begin implementation. We were able to complete this most recent upgrade in September.”  

Horn says the ILS systems that the base has been using were an older technology, which has about a 30-year lifecycle. The systems were in need of an upgrade, having gone 10 years past due for one. 

“Since the 1970s, these systems had undergone only minor modifications,” says Horn. “It was costing more to maintain them than it would to upgrade to a newer technology. Here at Fairchild, we have two sites for the ILS system, the centerline of runway and the glide path to runway. We gutted both systems and replaced them with entirely new ones.”

Horn estimates the two completely new systems set up at each site cost a total of $500,000. This doesn’t factor in the labor of their installation. The project is expected to save $48 million per year and $336 million by the year 2025.

“Upgrades save us money in maintenance costs and manning positions,” says Horn. “When we’re able to cut costs like that, the project becomes less expensive and we end up saving in the long run.”

Horn says the current upgrade is a new digital system, which can be serviced either from a remote maintenance center or by a local technician.

 “There are three maintenance centers in the Air Force,” he says. “One is in Europe, another is in the Pacific, and then there is one for the continental U.S. Because there is only three, the Air Force still has a need for local technicians to do some of the physical, hands-on work on these systems.” 

Horn says the last upgrades to the system took place in 2001, and involved the installation of new antennas.

 “We took out the old antennas, put in a newer system that was less susceptible to weather changes,” he says. “Before that there had been fluctuations in some of the readings, but the upgrade fixed that.” 

The Air Force Flight Standards Agency (AFFSA) is overseeing the project, the next phase of which is set to begin in April 2016. Horn says that for upgrade projects like this one to be possible, there needs to be a good relationship between the base and the AFFSA. 

“The AFFSA’s job is to create safety and standards for the Air Force. They take that vision and push it out to the rest of the Air Force,” says Horn.