New kitchen to be unveiled during upcoming exercise

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Rich Curry
  • 507th Air Refueling Wing
Tinker AFB, Oklahoma --  Wing members deploying on this month’s Operational Readiness Inspection will be able to experience the future of Air Force field food service as the wing’s new field kitchen is put to the test. 

The new kitchen is called a “SPEK” or Single Pallet Expeditionary Kitchen. 

According to Senior Master Sgt Terry Tunender, 507th Food Services Air Reserve Technician, “Everything needed to establish this portable kitchen, excluding meals and heating fuel, fits on one standard 463L aircraft pallet.” 

Sergeant Tunender said it takes four people roughly 1½ hours to set it up. The first hot meal can be served within 4 hours of arrival at the site (including set-up time). It’s configured to feed 1,100 personnel in a bare-base environment. It can be operated in some of the most austere and savage of weather conditions and in a mobile mode from the back of a truck. 

The SPEK is ideally suited to prepare Unitized Group Rations (UGRs) – a prepackaged heat and serve food line which does not require food preparation. Each UGR set of three boxes provides all the necessary utensils, plates, food, condiments and assorted accouterments to feed 50 personnel. There are seven breakfast and 14 lunch or dinner menus available.
 
The system consists of a three section TEMPER tent, flooring, pot and pan racks, tables and other miscellaneous equipment. New diesel-fueled, electrically-operated Babbington Burners replace the older match-lit, gasoline-fueled M2A1 burners. The new burners are a high tech replacement for the M2A1 burners that have been around since 1959. A person simply pushes the button to ignite the BB. It runs a self diagnostic on itself prior to initiating ignition, adding a level of safety never possible with the more hazardous M2A1. The sergeant noted the Marine Corps was the test bed for this new system/kitchen and the wing’s burners all have the Marine Corps emblem on the access plate. 

The core equipment of the new kitchen is the Tray Ration Heating System (TRHS) and the Field Sanitation Unit (FSU). These are also powered by the Babbington Burners. The TRHS heats up to 24 tray rations at a time with each tray feeding between 10 and 20 personnel, depending on the menu item being served. Using 15 servings per T-ration as a planning tool, the TRHS heats 24 trays every 30 minutes, providing 360 servings. Sergeant Tunender stated that theoretically, under ideal conditions, the new system could feed up to 1,440 personnel in 2 hours. 

The SPEK is ideally suited to operate rapidly in situations involving minimum food preparation and should provides a superior mobile platform to get hot meals to the 507th ARW Airman “at the front lines” during the wing’s ORE.