ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Over the last few years, new equipment has been manufactured and installed to provide high-pressure air to the Arnold Engineering Development Complex test facilities at Arnold Air Force Base in support of the recent increase in testing across base.
According to Tyler McCamey, project manager for the High-Pressure Air Additional Capacity project, or HPAAC, the new equipment will be able to provide larger quantities of high-pressure air for testing.
“Overall, it will help with operation flexibility and with distributing the amount of air that goes to the different test facilities based on priority and test schedules,” McCamey said. “The demand for high-pressure air has also been increasing.”
Adam Fanning, an asset manager for the HPAAC project, explained that there are three primary configurations for the air supply load at Arnold.
“One of them, the base configuration, will be able to support most users at the same time,” he said.
Meanwhile, the other two will provide increased air capacity to the test facilities across base.
The work on the HPAAC project, which began in 2020, is being completed by a HUBZone small business, Healtheon, as part of the Facility Acquisitions Restoration and Maintenance, or FARM, contract. A second increment of HPAAC capacity has now also been approved for acquisition planning.