Corpus Christi Army Depot, explained

Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) is the Army's depot for helicopters, engines, and helicopter components, a tenant on Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, since 1961. An April 17, 2026 story from the Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) puts the depot at nearly 2,100 personnel on more than 170 acres, with nearly 3 million square feet of production space. The story calls CCAD the only Center for Industrial and Technical Excellence in the Defense Department dedicated to rotary-wing aircraft. For the CH-47 Chinook, the depot overhauls T55 engines and, in August 2026, completed its first Chinook phase maintenance in 15 years.

From ARADMAC to CCAD

A March 2017 army.mil story gives the founding. The depot opened on March 10, 1961 as the U.S. Army Transportation Aeronautical Depot Maintenance Center, or ARADMAC, the Army's first aviation maintenance facility. Before then the Army relied on the Navy, the Air Force, and private industry for overhaul and repair. ARADMAC moved into World War II-era Navy hangars on 15 acres and was operational by April 21. The first engine overhaul, an R1820-103 for the CH-21B Shawnee, came on September 5, 1961.

The first full recorded year, July 1, 1961 to June 30, 1962, produced six fixed-wing aircraft, 40 helicopters, 756 engines, and 6,673 components. The depot began by overhauling all Army aircraft. As the Vietnam War drove up helicopter and component work, it became exclusively rotary-wing. The current name dates from 1974.

The anniversary date varies by source. An April 2011 army.mil entry written by the depot marked the 50th anniversary on April 21, 2011, while the depot commander told the April 2026 audience that the 65th anniversary would come in June.

Size and workload over time

Army sources give these figures:

Army source	Workforce	Footprint
April 2011 army.mil entry	More than 5,900 people, from 12 in 1961	Not given
March 2017 story	Not given	About 2.6 million square feet on 158 acres
January 2018 story	More than 3,200 civilian employees	Not given
April 2026 AMCOM story	Nearly 2,100 personnel	Nearly 3 million square feet on more than 170 acres

The counts measure different things, people in 2011 and civilian employees in 2018, and no source cited here explains the decline. The 2011 entry called CCAD the world's largest helicopter repair facility and 12 percent of the local economy. From its start to the end of fiscal year 2010, the entry reports, the depot produced 167 fixed-wing aircraft, 14,315 helicopters, 97,243 engines, and 1,886,503 components.

The 2026 story describes the work today. Col. Kevin Consedine, the commander, said the depot can build a helicopter from structural repair to test flight, but that its primary workload is component sustainment. Consedine named composite repair and a level-two ball bearing reclamation program among its capabilities.

The CH-47 work

A September 2026 army.mil story, described in the next section, dates the depot's Chinook work to 1983, when CCAD took on the CH-47D. The depot delivered its first modernized CH-47F to Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, on February 6, 2010. GAO-23-106217, the November 2022 Government Accountability Office report, records a gap: program officials said there was no CH-47 depot maintenance in fiscal years 2011 through 2019 while the fleet was modernized. GAO names CCAD and several theater aviation sustainment maintenance groups as CH-47F depot maintenance providers, with the Defense Logistics Agency and AMCOM on supply.

Engines are the best-documented Chinook work. A January 2018 army.mil story reports that Honeywell partnered with CCAD in February 2005 to overhaul the T55-GA-714A, the engine of the CH-47 and the special operations MH-47. The depot finished its first overhaul in May 2006, its 500th engine in September 2011, and its 1,000th in January 2018. The story says each overhaul saves more than half the cost of a new engine.

Milestones from 2024 to 2026

On August 26, 2024, the depot broke ground on Phase IV of its Aviation Multipurpose Production Facility, a September 2024 story reports. The building serves the T55 and T701 engine lines, with room for the T901. The fiscal year 2024 construction contract allocates $103.3 million, and options could take it past $140 million. An Army Materiel Command executive placed the work within the Army's 15-year, $18 billion organic industrial base plan.

The Chinook milestone followed. A September 14, 2026 story reports that a CH-47F arrived in December 2024 for targeted phase maintenance rather than full recapitalization. The team finished in August 2026, ahead of a Gate 4 milestone scheduled for mid-September. The story calls it the first CH-47 phase maintenance at the depot in 15 years and says the earlier program had been discontinued. The story adds that the Army Transformation Initiative reduced the active helicopter fleet, which decreased organic depot maintenance volume at CCAD.

What to check

• Does a workforce figure carry its date and basis? Army sources give more than 5,900 people in 2011, more than 3,200 civilian employees in 2018, and nearly 2,100 personnel in 2026.
• Which founding date does a history use: March 10, 1961, the April 21 operating date, or the June anniversary named in 2026?
• Does a claim that CCAD overhauls Chinook transmissions cite a current public source? The Army stories cited here name T55 engines and whole-aircraft phase work.
• Does a CH-47 depot plan account for the fiscal year 2011 to 2019 gap GAO reported, and for the program CCAD re-established in 2026?
• Is a T55 statement about the T55-GA-714A engine that the Honeywell partnership overhauled?

Azcuna's ELLMENT for the CH-47 puts the Chinook's public technical manuals, the Army sling-load manuals and a unit's own SOPs on a laptop or tablet that answers a repairer's or flight engineer's question with no network and cites the manual and page. Azcuna submitted it as a concept white paper to the Army's xTech|Search 10 competition in October 2026.

Sources

1. 1Army leaders highlight industry partnerships, depot capabilities at AAAA summit · U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (April 17, 2026)
2. 2CCAD celebrates 56 years in Army aviation · Army Materiel Command, via army.mil (March 10, 2017)
3. 3Corpus Christi Army Depot · Corpus Christi Army Depot, via army.mil (April 20, 2011)
4. 4Army Depot, Honeywell Complete 1,000 CH-47 Engines · Army Materiel Command, via army.mil (January 23, 2018)
5. 5Weapon System Sustainment: Aircraft Mission Capable Goals Were Generally Not Met and Sustainment Costs Varied by Aircraft (GAO-23-106217) · U.S. Government Accountability Office (November 10, 2022)
6. 6Celebrating another modernization milestone in groundbreaking style · Corpus Christi Army Depot, via army.mil (September 9, 2024)
7. 7Corpus Christi Army Depot completes historic Chinook maintenance milestone · Corpus Christi Army Depot, via army.mil (September 14, 2026)

Where this shows up in our work

• ELLMENT for the CH-47 Chinook answers a repairer's or flight engineer's question from the Chinook's manuals and the Army sling-load manuals and cites the page, with no network.
• TRACE, the offline S1000D and IETM viewer opens S1000D, MIL-STD-3001 and PDF technical manuals on a tablet with every marking intact.