TACAIR Integration Hits the Wall
"Now, at the beginning of 2011, U.S. Marine Corps aviation still
exists. Apart from VMFA-121 and VMFA-224, who happily inherited some F/
A-18A+'s from the last deactivated Marine and Navy reserve squadrons,
three other VMFA(AW) units still use their venerable 10 F/A-18Ds each.
Thanks to increased Super Hornet orders by the Navy, the last of four
other VMFA squadrons was withdrawn from CVW-11, to provide more F/A-18A
+/Cs for the prolonged global war on terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, and
Somalia.
With USN and USMC air components merged at the new artificial-reef
airfield off MCAS Iwakuni, some USN Hornets from deactivated CVW-17
switched to UDP, remaining four 12-plane AV-8B Harrier squadrons, and
Marines receiving all EA-6B ICAP IIIs retired from the Navy service,
the Marine TACAIR deployments went on..."
Might it come true some day?;-)
Best regards,
Jacek
(superhornet at o2 dot pl)
|