Marine Corps Digging Through the D-M Boneyard

trafficinsight said:
Some nice doublespeak in there.

When trying to prove thriftyness: "maintained in X condition."

When trying to buy the shiny new toy: "gathering dust and rust."


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That's what it takes to motivate the 10 year long decision making process that results in getting stuff to fix the broke stuff you own and are consistently being asked to do more with despite a lack of funding or replacement items.

The last F/A-18 the Marine Corps bought came off the line before many on this forum graduated High School (1999). The first ones and a good portion of the C/D models are remanufactured and came out before CD players were a normal thing. And the best of the lot were stolen by the Navy because the Navy models are all trapped out meaning they have hours left in their airframe life but they can't safely go land on a boat anymore.


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fholbert said:
I thought that's what the boneyard was for?
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To maintain a viable air fleet? Hardly. It's true that some aircraft are in long-term storage in case a need arises for a replacement from time-to-time (B-52H after a loss, for example), or in support of a new mission, but it was never meant as a solution to supplementing an entire fleet because lack of timely replacements in the pipeline.
 
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Yup all of them doing it, but I think Marines are especially hard pressed as some parts are not even being made anymore for the non-super Hornets. I remember an article late last year or early this year of them contacting two private museum's looking for a specific part for the nose gear of an F-18. They ended up making them with a 3d printer.

My brother worked with P-3's for the last 14 years before he transferred to another plane and he made the comment to me last year when I visited for Christmas in Hawaii, where he was stationed at, that he once had to go out to the P-3 on display on the base to see if it had a serviceable part on it they needed for an active bird.
 
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