Focused on Field Equipment Support Requirements, Their Innovations Help Combat Hawks Soar
An Army Brigade Focuses on Field Equipment Support Requirements to Carry Out Mass Innovation Activities — Innovations Help Combat Hawks Soar
■ Luo Ziyin, Cheng Jingyao
Recently, an Army brigade organized a field flight training exercise. During training support, a new type of specialized pad block independently developed by the brigade's repair battalion senior technician Zhai Jiwei and his technical team was put into use for the first time, with its practicality and reliability verified.
"To develop this seemingly unremarkable little component, we put in enormous effort." Reflecting on this innovation, Zhai Jiwei was deeply moved.
During one field periodic inspection operation, a wooden pad block at the root of a combat aircraft's rotor suddenly shattered and shifted position, nearly causing damage to a core component. "If this pad block breaks in the garrison area, it can be replaced or repaired; but if it happens in a field environment, the combat aircraft would be grounded." This unexpected near-incident steeled Zhai Jiwei's resolve to crack this tough nut (硬骨头).
Afterward, Zhai Jiwei led several "soldier-experts (兵专家)" and plunged headlong into the "Technician's Home (技术员之家)," repeatedly calculating rotor stress data and comparing the impact resistance and wear resistance of different materials one by one. Through experiment after experiment and revision after revision of plans, the team ultimately identified the most suitable pad block material. The new specialized pad block made from this material is both lightweight and portable — suitable for field accompanying support — and capable of withstanding high loads and heavy pressure, filling a gap in field combat-realistic support (野外实战化保障).
"What the battlefield requires is the living source of innovation." The brigade's leadership introduced that in recent years, they have focused on field equipment support requirements to carry out mass innovation activities (群众性创新活动), relying on platforms such as the "Technician's Home (技术员之家)" and "Master Craftsman Studio (大师傅工作室)" to encourage officers and soldiers to break down professional barriers and jointly tackle research challenges, so that innovation results come from training and go into actual combat.
A certain type of combat aircraft's pipelines were prone to air expansion, and conventional inspection and maintenance methods could not provide a fundamental cure. Faced with this problem that even manufacturer technicians found troublesome, Battalion Commander Zhang of a battalion in the brigade led technical backbone personnel through more than one hundred experimental deductions, working out the "hairspring air-guiding method (游丝导气法)" — using nothing more than a thin steel wire to precisely clear the pipelines. This result was later incorporated into the equipment technical manual and promoted for use across multiple units equipped with that type of combat aircraft.
"Wherever the exercise and training ground is, that is where the tentacles of innovation extend." The brigade's First-Class Sergeant Major and avionics technician Chen Zunjun has a deep appreciation for this. Through his participation in live-fire shooting missions, he discovered that fixed-type maintenance platforms, due to their large size and slow deployment, were ill-suited to complex field terrain and impaired emergency support efficiency. To address this, he and his technical team revised the structural design approach and produced an integrated folding maintenance platform that is reduced in both volume and weight, achieving rapid support across all terrain types with the ability to respond at any time.
Arriving at the brigade's outdoor flight line apron, support department assistant Sun Dachuang opened a rotor blade vibration parameter calibration APP independently developed in-house and rapidly calibrated the combat aircraft's key parameters. Previously, manual calibration, engine run-up, and verification required several hours for the entire process; now, entering parameters into this APP takes only a dozen or so seconds to complete, dramatically improving support efficiency.
The combat hawks stand in formation, poised and ready. On the apron, all support work advances in an orderly manner. One by one, innovation results born from the needs of military training (练兵需求) and produced by the hands of officers and soldiers are being put to the test of actual combat as the combat hawks spread their wings and soar, accumulating the confidence to win on the battlefield.