Dino van Doorn witnesses the final departure of the UK’s Joint Force Harrier fleet from the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona.
After the RAF/Royal Navy Harrier fleet was prematurely retired in December 2010, Joint Force Harrier (JFH) was disbanded in February 2011. In November 2011, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced the $180m (£110m) sale of its Harrier assets to the US government, which included 72 Harrier airframes, spares and associated support equipment.
These were subsequently shipped to the US and 58 (three Harrier GR7/7As, 47 Harrier GR9/As and eight Harrier T10s) arrived at the 309th AMARG at Davis-Monthan AFB in April 2012. Visits on July 19 saw the final days of these Harriers unfolding, when they left the giant facility, having been stored in Area 23 for more than ten years.
On the back of low loader lorries they were transported to melting furnaces of the HVF-West company, located close to the AMARG facility. HVF-West is the main contractor for the removal of surplus military aircraft leaving AMARG.
During the author’s visit, he witnessed a number of Harriers being transported to HVF-West, where they were promptly chopped into pieces and processed int…
