Marine Corps Lays Out Plan for Harrier Crews as Stalwart Aircraft Flies into Sunset

[rangerrebew]

Marine Corps Lays Out Plan for Harrier Crews as Stalwart Aircraft Flies into Sunset
 
U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B prepares to land aboard the USS Wasp
A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B prepares to land aboard the USS Wasp while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, April 12, 2024. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. John Allen)
Military.com | By Drew F. Lawrence
Published August 20, 2024 at 4:37pm ET
 

Earlier this year, Harriers were flying around the eastern Mediterranean on a deterrence mission amid the Israel war. The aircraft was proving its worth once again, as it has for more than 40 years.

 
But some of the jets are already being repurposed to museums as the Harrier -- once the bleeding edge of Marine Corps aviation with its vertical takeoff and landing capability -- is set to be retired and the service transitions to the new F-35 Lightning II. Its squadrons have dwindled to two, and its maintainers have hit the fleet for the last time.
 

"We're in an interesting place in our history," Lt. Col. John Cumbie, the commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron 223, one of the remaining Harrier units out of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, told Military.com in a recent interview.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/08/20/marine-corps-saying-goodbye-harrier-where-will-its-crews-go.html

[PeteS in CA]

The AV-8B came into service in 1985. It's basically an early 1980s upgrade of the late 60s British Harrier (e.g. Kaiser Electronics was producing pilot production AV-8B HUDs in 1979 or 1980). The Harrier served well in the Falklands War against very limited Argentine air forces and in ground attack. The AV-8B is a good plane, but it's subsonic and it reached its limits of upgradeability. The F-35 brings considerably greater capability to the amphibious assault ships from which the AV-8B had been operating.