“Our aviation fuels team routinely uses pantographs to support aircraft cold refueling operations at NAVSTA,” said Lt. Shane O’Donnell, FLCSI’s fuels officer at NAVSTA. “This month’s hot pit refueling evolution represents an additional mission set for FLCSI to support HSM-79 warfighters and will increase the squadron's readiness as they train in the airspace around Rota, Spain. Hot pit refueling becomes necessary only when operational requirements dictate that aircraft minimize ground time and maximize time in flight operations."

During cold refueling operations, aircraft engines are shut down to allow for additional maintenance and safety checks. Conversely, hot pit refueling occurs in less time because aircraft engines are kept turned on and the rotors are still spinning during refueling.

“Because the engines remain on during hot refuels, performing this aspect of our mission is considered more dangerous to personnel and more costly in terms of fuel and manpower expenditure,” O’Donnell said. “To perform this new mission set safely and correctly, we’ve conducted many training evolutions and dry runs that ensured the success we had this week.”

“Increasing our mission set and relevancy by adding this capability to support hot pit refueling means NAVSUP is now better positioned to support the operational requirements of our homeported HSM-79 Team,” said Cmdr. Bert Phillips, FLCSI’s Site Director at NAVSTA.

“We expect to see a high volume of flight hours from HSM-79 over the coming weeks as this new capability will directly support their mission and training requirements as they prepare for upcoming patrols with Rota's FDNF Destroyers,” added O’Donnell.

NAVSTA Rota sustains the fleet, enables the fighter and supports the family by conducting air operations, port operations, ensuring security and safety, assuring quality of life and providing the core services of power, water, fuel and information technology.

Site Rota is one of NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Sigonella's five logistics sites positioned across Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central. Site Rota provides supply chain management, bulk and aviation fueling capability, material handling equipment, contracting, hazardous material management, household goods and vehicle processing and postal operations to fleet, installation and other service components throughout the area of operations.