MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. – Over the last two years, the 908th Airlift Wing has awarded $34 million in construction and renovation contracts, adding to the local economy and facilitating its transition from tactical airlift into the Department of Defense’s only MH-139A Grey Wolf Helicopter Formal Training Unit. Of the 9 total projects, the largest, transforming an existing aircraft hangar into a simulator and academic building, is valued at $14 million.
The facility will house six training stations, including two operational flight trainers, a weapons simulator, a hoist and extraction trainer, a cockpit procedure trainer, and an integrated aircrew systems trainer. The operational flight trainers are fixed-base simulators incorporating a full-size crew station replication of the MH-139A cockpit and rear aircrew stations; the integrated aircrew systems trainer is a full-size non-operational MH-139A used for inspection and pre-flight training.
MH-139A student pilots and special-mission aviators are expected to spend approximately two months training in the facility prior to their initial flights in the Air Force’s newest platform providing security and support for the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missile fields. Other mission capabilities include civil search and rescue, airlift support, National Capital Region missions, as well as survival school and test support.
Construction is projected to begin on July 31, 2023.
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Located at Maxwell Air Force Base, the 908th is Alabama’s only Air Force Reserve wing. The wing has approximately 1,200 Reserve Citizen Airmen, serving in more than 80 career fields, with Air Reserve Technicians, civilian employees and Reservists on active-duty tours conducting day-to-day operations.
