BUNKER HILL, Ind. — An overhaul on a new jet fueling system has been completed at northern Indiana’s Grissom Air Reserve Base following several years of work to replace a system installed in the 1950s.
The $35 million fuel hydrant system recently went online, replacing the base’s former fuel system, which had required tanker trucks to enter the base in order to restock fuel tanks, the Kokomo Tribune reported.
But the new system allows fuel to be offloaded by delivery tankers that never have to enter the main military installation, creating obvious security benefits, said Lt. Col. Matt Garvelink, 434th Security Forces Squadron commander.
“Anytime we can create extra stand-off between Grissom’s asset vehicles with 50,000 pounds of jet fuel, it’s a good option,” he said in a news release.
The new fuel system has a flow capacity of about 600 gallons (2,271 liters) per minute, and can fuel four aircraft in the same parking row. It can also simultaneously refuel and defuel planes at the base, which is located near Bunker Hill about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of Indianapolis.
Work on the project, which was paid for by the Defense Logistics Agency, began in 2015, but design work dates to 2012.
Grissom commander Thom Pemberton said that while it took around nine years from design to completion, the new infrastructure upgrade that will help the base far into the future.
