Tobyhanna Army Depot –
Tobyhanna Army Depot is engineering more efficient ways to power a vital air and missile defense system.
In 2024, CECOM identified both cost and time deficiencies in the cable assembly for the Electric Power Plant III - a power generator for the MIM-104 Patriot air defense system. The nation turned to the dynamic civilian workforce of Tobyhanna Army Depot to reverse engineer the cables and power this vital equipment for our warfighters quickly, affordably, and precisely.
This effort, according to Tobyhanna Army Depot Design, Development & Fabrication Division Chief Chase Gardner “ties directly to Department of War transformational strategies getting the war fighters what they need faster, cheaper, and organically.”
Since earning the mission, a versatile team of artisans from several areas of the depot including Design, Development, and Fabrication Division; Cable and Electrical Fabrication Division; Machining and Mechanical Development Branch; and Component Preparation and Plating Branch have contributed to the fabrication of two prototypes to date and are funded for 27 more with slight variations. The comprehensive effort has included reverse engineering the connectors and re-engineering the entire cable (connector, housing, and assembly) as well as creating models, drawings, and a technical data package for CECOM.
Gardner said the use of an international company to manufacture the cables was resulting in significant cost and over 12 months of lead time for cable connectors in low quantities alone.
“You had $20,000 cables red lining $1,000,000 weapon systems that are our number one air defense mitigation in contested areas. We know for a fact the reason the cables were taking over a year was because of the connectors,” said Gardner.
Over the course of Tobyhanna Army Depot’s service to the nation, its leadership has shown an uncanny ability to anticipate the needs of warfighters on an ever-evolving battlefield. This example is no exception and is the reason why Tobyhanna earned this mission.
Gardner said Tobyhanna had been establishing an organic cable connector capability and was keen to expand it when the depot hosted a briefing. One person attending the briefing was someone instrumental to Tobyhanna securing this work - Lee Straube, Associate Director Technology, CECOM Integrated Logistics Support Center.
Upon hearing of Tobyhanna’s ability to offer an organic source of supply that could produce cables cheaper and faster, Gardner said Straube set his sights on Tobyhanna.
Straube has been extremely impressed with the latest success to emerge from Tobyhanna’s production floor.
“Because of Tobyhanna, we now have our first domestic source. Tobyhanna is making the cables at half the price and cutting way back on our production lead times, so it’s a win-win for CECOM and the U.S. Army,” said Straube.
Tobyhanna Army Depot Field Engineer Matthew Check said a project like this allows the depot’s workforce to showcase what they are capable of.
“I think a mission like this shows that we could reverse engineer, re-engineer, and fabricate complex cables like this as well as machine connectors and housings that others may not have the ability to do,” said Check.
While the immediate priority for the team involved with this mission will be the fabrication of the 27 additional prototypes, Gardner sees this effort as the start of something much bigger for Tobyhanna, the Department of War, and the warfighters served by it.
“We hope a mission like this demonstrates the capability for an organic connector manufacturing source of supply across the Department of War. This is Tobyhanna’s first step in demonstrating that capability and a good use case for the community as to why an organic source makes sense.”
Tobyhanna Army Depot (TYAD) is designated as the Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR), electronics, avionics, and missile guidance and control. TYAD provides cradle-to-grave lifecycle support through depot-level repair, systems integration, software and cyber engineering, and field support. A key enabler of operational readiness for Joint and Allied Forces globally, TYAD leverages new and emerging technologies to further expand the Department of Defense’s organic capabilities for microelectronics, secure communications infrastructure, unmanned aerial systems, Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD), and the Army’s Next Generation Combat Systems (NGC2). TYAD’s ability to rapidly surge production, deploy field support teams, and scale for contingency or theater-level operations makes it a vital contributor to strategic readiness and operational reach.