USAF Boneyard

[Phantom88]

Neat time lapse video at Davis Monthan AFB Arizona.How many Vintage Aircraft can you recognize?

[MemphisBelle]

Some stories are just stories but other stories belong to the Aircrafts on the boneyard, this is a small cut off. It´s very impressive

 

Edited June 24, 2017 by MemphisBelle

[mvsgas]

MemphisBelle, to embed youtube videos, just need the code after the = in your case L1s-1nHdIgs

[MemphisBelle]

MemphisBelle, to embed youtube videos, just need the code after the = in your case L1s-1nHdIgs

 

Thanks, edited it

[Kippy]

Awesome videos guys, thanks for the share.

 

Though... it is very heartbreaking to see these beautiful machines waste away in the desert.. B-1s especially. I hear their fleet is having some serious issues keeping jets airborne and is having to cannibalize other aircraft.

 

I wonder how much I'd have to pay the Air Force to let me run through that place with a crowbar and take home some souvenirs.. I'd sure like to have some instruments like an altimeter or something on my desk :)

[elchacal]

Nice vids! Thanks for sharing! :thumbup:

[ST0RM]

I was just at DM last week. Saw the jet I turned in to AMARG, a few years ago. The first operational KC-135R 61-0312. Just last year, it was spray-latted and standing proud. It's now up on wooden pallets, stripped of many parts for the rest of the fleet.

 

I also saw all of the ex-RAF Harrier GR.9s. They were sitting with wings removed and fuselages wrapped up. I dont know how many actually helped the USMC Harrier fleet though.

 

Truly an amazing place, with history trapped behind walls.

[Heli]

what happened with AH-1Ws, which was retired from USMC and not rebuilded to the AH-1Zs?

 

boneyard? scrap? sell?

[Igor4U]

During the Reagan Administration - the Goal for the USAF was to build to a 40 Tactical Wing Equivalent.

 

But Events overtook that Plan:

 

- Large increases in Budget Deficits & National Debt

- Fall of Berlin Wall

- Breakup of the Soviet Union

- And the anticipated realization of a 'Peace Dividend' by drastically down-sizing America's Military Force Structure

 

So under Presidents HW Bush and Bill Clinton - America's Combat Force Structure was reduced 40% (saving $1Trillion over the decade of the 1990s based on the Trajectory that the Reagan Defense Budgets were on).

 

Manpower and Hardware simply went away. :(

 

So now the DM Bone-Yard has Squadron after Squadron (literally as far as the eye can see) of once proud Aircraft. In fact - if re-constituted - the Bone-Yard might be in the Top 10 of largest Air Force in the World (my Guesstimate).

Edited August 24, 2017 by Igor4U
add picture

[Heli]

what happened with AH-1Ws, which was retired from USMC and not rebuilded to the AH-1Zs?

 

boneyard? scrap? sell?

 

 

USMC SuperCobras to be sold off to international customers

[VZ_342]

For me the sad part is slowly seeing old friends--fleets of F-4's, A-4's, B-52's etc be there one day, then a year later nothing but a big empty field with "shadows" on the ground. (As seen on Google Earth)

 

I saw the entire fleet of EF-111A's and the other 111's simply fade away. Don't know which fate was better--ours were scrapped and presumably melted, while the Aussie 111's were stripped and buried in unmarked mass graves.

[Drag80]

Any idea why they are not being recycled ?

[DoomEngine]

I always have the hope that the birds here are "hibernating", and will have a future purpose. They proved themselves in their role, and may yet be needed again. It is inspiring and depressing to watch these vids...thank you.

[Emmy]

At least AMARG turns a profit...

 

It brings in about $2.50 for every $1 it takes to operate.

[Heli]

 

http://www.amarcexperience.com/ui/index.php

 

AMARG database, lists, movements

 

for example, now in the storage area

AH-1J - 7

AH-1S - 16

AH-1W -35