EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- In their mid-20's, the F-16 Fighting Falcons at Misawa Air Base are older than most Airmen that maintain them. The paint on the jets recently reached its maximum service life and began to reverting back to its original form of a liquid, creating potential hazards during flight, yielding the need for a "face lift."

The 35th Maintenance Squadron Airmen discovered an innovative solution, ultimately ensuring no sortie fails to reach the skies.

“The whole squadron felt the effects of this,” said Maj. Timothy Brokaw, the 35th MXS commander. “We have had to lean on each other for support and guarantee the members of the fabrication flight were supported by the rest of the 35th MXS on and off duty.”

The team at Misawa did not fail in supporting their fabrication flight crew. Once the paint issue came to light in September, both the 13th and 14th Fighter Squadrons immediately evaluated the situation, developed a solution, scheduled Vipers for re-painting and executed.

Repairing the coats of paint on an F-16 is a tedious process, taking 10 days -- two to remove old paint and erosion and eight for permanent repairs.

“It takes 15 coats of paint with 15 minutes in between each coat, totaling four hours plus 48 hours of cure time,” explained Airman 1st Class William Brunz, a 35th MXS aircraft structural maintenance journeyman. “Then we do a destruction test, making sure it set correctly. Two hours later we repair the test by applying a fast coat, then add a flex primer that has a six to 10-hour cure time. Finally, we add a top coat that takes 72 hours to set.”

Despite the summer MAB runway closure, maintenance didn’t miss a beat in their re-painting efforts, while also ensuring all jets arrived to their temporary duty locations ready to perform.

The 354th Maintenance Squadron at Eielson Air Force Base provided Misawa Airmen a facility to complete repairs throughout May and June. This also allowed Eielson Airmen the opportunity to learn from Misawa’s fabrication team.

“They are providing good training and guidance on how the process is rolling out,” explained Staff Sgt. Andrew Imhof, a 354th MXS aircraft structural maintenance NCO in charge. “We learned timelines about issues that may come up and even some techniques to make the process move quicker.”

While this has been a challenge for the 35th MXS fabrication team, they have set new standards to eradicate the problem and make it easier for other F-16 squadrons to quickly alleviate paint issues.

“They are at the forefront of this problem and developed the tactics, techniques and procedures the rest of the Pacific F-16 units have since adopted as best practices,” said Brokaw. “The 35th MXS fabrication flight has led the charge for guaranteeing combat capability within the Pacific F-16 fleet.”