Tobyhanna Army Depot’s Forward Repair Activities Sustain Forward Units

Nestled in the scenic Pocono Mountains, Tobyhanna Army Depot is a driving force of global readiness for the joint warfighter. With employees permanently stationed in 43 locations across the globe, Tobyhanna’s talented workforce and expansive capabilities are vital to the readiness of the U.S. Armed Forces and partner nations. These highly skilled professionals bring decades of sustainment expertise to the frontlines, bolstering the DOD and playing a key role in its regional sustainment framework.

TYAD is the Army’s Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) repair source. A dynamic organization, TYAD’s team manages over 2,500 fabrication and repair programs that provide readiness across the Joint Forces.

While most of the workload that Tobyhanna supports is conducted at the depot in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the requirement to repair systems and provide support forward is a critical component of TYAD’s strategy to lead the Army’s Organic Industrial Base in supporting the evolution of mission requirements. In a time where Army leaders look to the OIB as a key component to solve readiness and capability gaps in the sustainment of the Army, Tobyhanna demonstrates an organic, proven, and sustainable model to deliver OIB expertise and capability to forward operating units.

In the 1990s, Tobyhanna personnel recognized that the traditional depot sustainment model was evolving and, in response to changing warfighter needs, the depot established permanent Forward Repair Activities, or FRAs, outside of its gates. These FRAs have continuously operated in strategic locations such as Germany, Kuwait, Korea, Fort Liberty, Fort Cavazos, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord and play a crucial role in increasing readiness:  reducing downtime for units, decreasing transportation costs, and developing support relationships with tactical Army units, which aids in the identification of gaps in current Army sustainment structure for supporting C5ISR systems. Today, CECOM remains the only lifecycle management command with a persistent presence in key locations across the U.S. and within CENTCOM, EUCOM and PACOM.

Tobyhanna’s strategic foresight has positioned it well to meet the needs of the future force, including a growing need to repair equipment at forward locations. Forward support services, like the ones already provided by TYAD FRAs, were highlighted by a panel of senior sustainment leaders at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition in October.

During the dialogue, Army Materiel Command Deputy Commanding General and Acting Commander Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan touted AMC’s expeditionary capability, noting how it reduced costs and minimized system downtime for servicemembers.

The idea of expanding forward support services is underscored by the DOD’s emphasis on the RSF, first announced in May by the then-Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Dr. William A. LaPlante, and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, Christopher Lowman. The RSF aims to optimize regional maintenance, repair, and overhaul operations and has three main goals: to prevail in a contested logistics environment; enhance military readiness; and strengthen regional partnerships across joint and allied partners.

TYAD’s FRAs provide capabilities not found in tactical formations under the existing two-tiered maintenance system. In addition, FRAs leverage the larger framework of depot capabilities and experience, serving as a mitigation strategy within a contested logistics environment — and thusly enabling the Army to quickly regenerate combat power. Capabilities are tailored to individual theaters of operations, with the ability to rapidly expand or evolve. Teams are augmented by contracted workforce or through the deployment of depot employees across the world.

As the Army has transitioned its focus to support multi-domain operations, the maintenance assets in tactical formations require support from the Sustainment Level of Maintenance, especially when employing C5ISR systems in forward environments to support Command and Control functions. Through the employment of its FRAs, TYAD is poised to support these requirements.

TYAD’s forward support model has thirty years of proven success, exceeding expectations when taking on new challenges. For example, when AMC needed its OIB to surge support for Ukraine, TYAD had technicians on the ground in Poland in less than 48 hours. Because the support came from the FRA in Germany, the team already understood the theater of operations and had the support network in place to meet AMC’s needs expertly.

Partner nations greatly benefit from TYAD’s far-reaching capabilities. A forward support team touched down in Poland this summer for a six-month mission providing C5ISR familiarization training to native warfighters. At the conclusion of the trainings, students will have the ability to maintain and sustain a variety of military equipment from radios to radars. Through developing a wide base of supported customers, TYAD can reduce costs to any single requirement while providing readiness at the point of need.

The team at Tobyhanna continues to look to the future, adapting our capabilities to meet the needs of tomorrow. TYAD is developing relationships with private industry to expand its capabilities to operate FRAs at the point of need. Under this construct, TYAD will establish public-private partnerships with companies to leverage their forward factories and maintenance facilities to execute rapid repairs. Conversely, private companies may use the TYAD FRAs as support locations to provide product support to their programs. Through this increase in flexibility, TYAD will enable more rapid sustainment of systems in areas where permanent government owned FRAs are not sustainable, and a more flexible option is needed.

The depot is also exploring an expansion of FRAs into the Far East, acknowledging the opportunities for quicker and more reliable services within the remote Pacific regions.

Whether warfighters are within the continental U.S. or in the furthest corners of the globe, Tobyhanna Army Depot stands ready to quickly support them, ensuring mission success today, tomorrow and into the future.

TYAD is a recognized leader in providing world-class logistics support for command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems across the Department of Defense. Tobyhanna’s Corporate Philosophy, dedicated work force and electronics expertise ensure the depot is the joint C5ISR provider of choice for all branches of the Armed Forces and industry partners.

Tobyhanna’s unparalleled capabilities include full-spectrum logistics support for sustainment, overhaul and repair, fabrication and manufacturing, engineering design and development, systems integration, postproduction software support, technology insertion, modification, foreign military sales and global field support to our joint warfighters.

About 3,300 personnel are employed by Tobyhanna. While the organization’s headquarters is located in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, Tobyhanna’s worldwide workforce includes employees in 43 fixed locations across the globe.

Tobyhanna Army Depot is part of the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command. Headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, the command’s mission is to deliver integrated C5ISR weapon systems, business systems, and medical sustainment to enable full spectrum combat operations at the point of need.