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OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea – The 51st Civil Engineer Squadron and the 51st Logistics Readiness Squadron performed Osan Air Base’s first Water and Fuel Expedient Repair System demonstration, June 11, 2025.
The demonstration showcased the base’s ability to expediently fill an R-11 fuel truck using the WaFERS system, highlighting Osan’s capability to rapidly restore fuel operations in a contingency environment. This enables sustained air operations by ensuring aircraft can continue to receive fuel, even when main fuel lines or infrastructure are damaged.
WaFERS allows civil engineers to bypass compromised fuel pipelines by putting a hydraulic driven pump into a fuel reserve tank, transferring it through a WaFERS pump trailer, then flowing the fuel through a machine filter separator and finally into R-11s or directly to aircraft.
“This is a critical piece of contingency equipment we have that can transfer fuel to trucks or directly to aircraft,” said Tech. Sgt. Louis Thiele, 51st CES section chief of water and fuels maintenance. “In a contingency environment, if we lose all refueling capabilities, we can take this equipment, put it in a fuel tank or any fuel source, filter fuel out, and send the filtered fuel to a refueling truck and we will have aircraft flying again.”
This demonstration marked the first phase of WaFERS system implementation at Osan, with combined efforts between both the 51st CES and the 51st LRS. The goal between both squadrons is to continue to train members on using the WaFERS system and eventually progress to fueling an aircraft directly.
"It's cool to see that we are making these innovations,” said Staff Sgt. Luis Valdez, 51st CES liquid fuels maintenance craftsman. “WaFERS kit itself is a new system. It’s good that we are having these discussions about new ways to accomplish the mission.”
The WaFERS system consists of equipment including repair kits, filter capabilities, and all of the transport setup gear, thus allowing engineers to repair lines, pumps, compressors, generate new lines, and much more. This robust system enables refueling support across the installation given any drastic situation.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2025 01:13 |
| Story ID: | 500532 |
| Location: | OSAN AIR BASE, GYEONGGIDO [KYONGGI-DO], KR |
| Web Views: | 21 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Osan Demonstrates Rapid Fuel Restoration with WaFERS System, by SrA Rome Bowermaster, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
