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Bradley endorses new hearing protection for Reservists

  • Published
  • By John Schutte
  • AFRL Human Effectiveness Directorate
WRIGHT PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO --  Technology developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory here to prevent noise-induced hearing loss will become the preferred solution for Air Force Reserve Command aviators.  

Lieutenant General John A. Bradley, commander of Air Force Reserve Command and chief of Air Force Reserve, recommended the Attenuating Custom Communications Earpiece System, or ACCES, and outlined funding methods at a Dec. 7 meeting of the AFRC Requirements Review Board at the Pentagon.

General Bradley, a command pilot with more than 6,900 flight hours including 337 combat missions, flew four F-16 sorties wearing the ACCES system in early December.

He liked what he heard—and did not hear—during those flights, and was immediately sold on the technology that reduces noise by 40 decibels (dB) and provides clearer radio communications in the cockpit. 

“These things are phenomenal,” General Bradley said during a December 14 interview at his Pentagon office. “I want to buy this for every Reserve I have who wears a helmet. And that’s my fighter guys, that’s my bomber guys, and my training guys.” Additionally, mobility aircrew wear helmets during night vision goggle operations and in combat, and ground crew and maintainers wear helmets during takeoff and landing operations.

“I suspected… I would have the (radio) volume significantly lower, and it’s true,” General Bradley continued. “I will tell you that it cuts out more noise and I can hear much better, and I mean it’s unbelievable. I have the volume knobs turned way down… to the 25 percent range, versus 75 to 80 percent (without ACCES), so I hear much better.”

General Bradley’s plan would streamline procurement of the ACCES technology developed by AFRL’s Human Effectiveness (HE) Directorate to improve health, safety and communications when flying or working around aircraft. 

The review board collects, analyzes and validates the AFRC’s requirements. General Bradley directed his staff to procure ACCES using either 2006 fallout funds (unused command program funds) or individual flying unit funds at the unit commander’s discretion. 

Air Combat Command issued a safe-to-fly memo in August authorizing ACCES for use in several fighter aircraft, and that memo applies to Reserve missions also, General Bradley said. 

AFRL initiated the ACCES program upon learning that Air Force maintenance crews reported problems communicating with each other and with pilots when jet engines are in higher power settings. 

The Veterans Administration has reported that treatment of hearing loss has cost taxpayers more than $6.7 billion since 1977. 

“We pay a lot of money to people in retirement for disabilities,” General Bradley said. “We create that disability in some cases; people get disability payments for hearing loss because they’ve flown (or maintained) jet fighters or helicopters. And I thought, ‘Gee, why don’t we put some money into preventing the hearing loss up front instead of paying huge amounts, millions of dollars, or billions of dollars, in the end?’”