Air International 2021-01
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M.Ellis - The great American boneyard
Rows of A-10s, F-15s, F-16s and T-38s. Note the contingent of MQ-1 Predators, which started being inducted into AMARG in August 2018 following their retirement from the USAF in March that year. More than 70 Predators have been retired to date, although their numbers are decreasing. VX-30, the Navy’s West Coast test facility for unmanned air systems (UAS), now takes many of them
NATO E-3 LX-N90458 arrived at AMARG on September 12,2018, to join LX-90449, which had been parked there since June 2015. In a special Tiger colour scheme, the early warning and control system aircraft has been stripped of its many major parts. The meaning of ‘M.D/C.H’ on the wing is unknown
B-52s have been broken up at the facility since 1991 as part of the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START) and, more recently, New START, which is scheduled to expire in February 2021. Surrounded by chopped B-52Gs, the seven B-52H models (60-0019, 60-0020, 60-0030, 60-0043, 60-0046 61-0023, and 61-0027) have been moved to Area 26 to join their brethren and await their fate
A mixture of USAF, Navy and USMC C-9s parked in Area 22. The last active C-9s - USMC 160046/47 - arrived here in 2014. A total of 19 of the type are stored in the Arizona sun, including a NASA example
Five US Navy C-2A Greyhounds lie in AMARG’s Area 24. They are 152794/33, 148148/30,152791/32,162151/44 and the fifth should be 152790. With the impending introduction of the CMV-22 Osprey to replace the aging Greyhounds in the Carrier Onboard Delivery role, further C-2s will be heading to Tucson soon