The 23rd Maintenance Group and engineers from across the Air Force conducted a deficiency report investigation and test event for a missile system tester from Dec. 12-14, 2023, at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia.

There have been identified issues with the current Missile Launch System Test Set for the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile, and Air Combat Command’s goal is to replace the aging test system with the MTS 3060A SmartCan.

The new system has the capability to decrease aircraft downtime by 75% and maintainer footprint by 67%.

“The intent is to have the team evaluate this at Moody to capture that this tester is obsolete,” said Master Sgt. Adam Deanda, ACC A-10/HH-60 armament systems manager. “ACC's objective is once we have demonstrated to the engineers the test set is obsolete and needs to be replaced, the next step is to find a solution and funding!”

The issue was first identified last year in a deficiency report by the Idaho Air National Guard. Moody hosted this final test event on its standardized A-10 Thunderbolt II to verify the issue and test a proposed alternative.

With the current testing process, weapons load crew members use three separate testers to ensure an A-10 is ready to fly: the Portable Automated Test Station, which tests four weapons; the MLSTS, which tests the AIM-9 missile weapon system; and the Digital Voltage Detector, which checks voltage for missile rails.

From setup to test completion, this process takes roughly four to five hours. In comparison, the SmartCan tests the entire A-10 weapons system in about an hour. This enables multi-capable Airmen to rapidly deploy more aircraft in support of the agile combat employment concepts.

“The ultimate goal is to decrease downtime and increase our ability for our Airmen to go from one job to the next to get us back in the fight faster,” said Master Sgt. Mark Webber, 23rd MXG weapons standardization superintendent. “We need to get the aircraft back into the fight. We're going to this small footprint, agile team at austere locations, and we need to be able to be very efficient with our team.”

Once the SmartCan is confirmed as a viable solution, the next step is for ACC to explore funding options on behalf of the A-10, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon.

“We're all facing the same challenges of obsolescence and testers,” said Deanda about the different airframes who employ the AIM-9. “We believe this is the tester that's here today that solves this problem. We are trying to chase down any avenue that is possible so that we can give a solution to the field where we know we sorely need one.”