The 3rd largest Air Force in the world is sitting on the ground here.

[tannybogus]

Immediately after World War II, the Army's San Antonio Air Technical Service Command established a storage facility for B-29 and C-47 aircraft at Davis-Monthan AFB. Today, this facility is the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), which has grown to include more than 4,200 aircraft and 40 aerospace vehicles from the Air Force, Navy-Marine Corps, Army, Coast Guard, and several federal agencies including NASA.
The Bone Yard
Remember - Each one of these babies had a multi million dollar price tag!

http://www.dm.af.mil/units/AMARC.asp

Speechless....

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. That's a lotta bailout$!

[rwheeler31]

2. Why?

[tannybogus]

4. Supposedly they are all capable of being returned to service if the need ever arises. nt

[Aviation Pro]

14. Correct...

I've been to Davis and the restorative teams are brilliant. The Arizona desert is very kind to aircraft. However, I shudder to think of the circumstances that would require a reactivation of this fleet.

[Dreamer Tatum]

29. You can see mothballed F-4s and F-14s on the corner of Kolb and Escalante

It's a very impressive sight to see. Across the street, you can see helicopters that look like they've been scavengered (and tagged by gangs) pretty well.

[Aviation Pro]

30. Just got back from Phoenix but didn't have time to go out to Davis...

...the world's biggest air museum says I.

[bdab1973]

Actually...

The vast majority of the aircraft at AMARG are going to be disposed of one way or another. Most of those that are stored there in long term storage are used as attrition replacements, and others are stored for possible FMS sales.

The actual number of aircraft that sit mothballed awaiting the Pentagon's order to re-enter service is small.

[Angleae]

40. Except those that obviously have been chopped up.

B-52s destroyed for arms reduction treaties with Russia are on display just as shown so the russians can view them by satellite.

[baldguy]

7. Because the war industry doesn't make enough money.

[krispos42]

18. Because they're obsolescent or obsolete or worn-out.

But if you break them up they're gone forever. All those thousands of man-hours of work that each plane represents gets turned into molten slag.

Se we save them in the desert. We might need them to sell to a foreign power, or a living-history society, or some enterprising company with plans, or a museum. Or their might be a national emergency.

Remember, the assembly lines, tooling, and experienced workers for those planes and all the equipment and parts in them are retired, over taken by advances and new models and such.

[billyoc]

3. Shit, let me hang a mailbox on one of them, I'll live in it!

:rofl:

[ixion]

5. acutally, there's a great deal of uses and/or useful material there

it would be great to re-purpose it rather than letting it turn to dust.

[AzNick]

8. So that Russian satellites can see them

That is why they have stored all these airplanes there.

Russia has done the same.

[jmowreader]

13. That's why it's there

They pull parts from these planes all the time.

[itsrobert]

17. Also the dry desert air keeps them from rusting

There is also an area for Army equipment (tanks, etc) in the desert.

[dixiegrrrrl]

36. wow...lots of solar ovens.

[MrScorpio]

6. Thank God I was never stationed at D-M

I would have went nuts

[valerief]

9. Wow. That's a lotta tin. I'm surprised they're not given away as SWAGs at

rich-people parties.

[JohnyCanuck]

10. They should turn all that spare aluminum into something useful

They could turn it into something people really need these days, like this:



After everyone in America had their own tinfoil hat if there was still aluminum left over, we could give everyone their own tinfoil underwear to protect other vital body parts.



Pics from http://forum.japantoday.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=938967

[TankLV]

27. Nice - ahh - "tinfoil"!!!

[bdab1973]

11. The purpose of AMARG...

Is to store certain aircraft, and dispose of others. Yes, each of those aircraft had a "multi million dollar price tag". However, most of those aircraft were bought and paid for 30, 40 or 50 years ago. The majority of the aircraft in the photo are old B-52s and C-141s, along with what appears to be F-4s and C-135s. All of those aircraft were delivered sometime between 1955 and 1965...would you actually expect them to STILL be in service?

I have personally delivered aircraft to AMARG...last year I took two C-130Es to the "boneyard"...the aircraft were 1962 models, and were well past their prime. The military isn't simply throwing away aircraft and wasting money...actually, AMARG exists to increase efficiency and SAVE money. There are three common dispositions for aircraft that enter AMARG...I can't remember which number goes with what, but there's 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 series storage. One level is for disposal...if you look at the B-52s, they are being disposed of. As they are being disposed of, the parts are laid out for satellite viewing per a treaty signed with the USSR about 20 years ago. Then the remains are scrapped and sold to scrap metal dealers.

Another series of disposal includes aircraft that are either parted out (source of spare parts) or used for other purposes, such as aerial drones, etc. Most of the F-4s in that picture will likely be used as aerial targets, and instead of the DoD having to buy targets, they can simply use the nearly-worn out F-4s that went obsolete back in the 1980s.

The third series, as explained by the guys that work at AMARG, is used for a short-term storage, but they rarely get aircraft in that category. Finally, the last category is long-term storage. As the military changes size (usually downward), extra aircraft from deactivated squadrons can be stored here and used as attrition replacements. Other aircraft are stored because Congress allowed them to be retired, but not destroyed, and could (unlikely) be potentially called back to service. Finally, other long-term storage aircraft can be brought out from storage and sold through FMS to other countries. Poland got their C-130s from AMARG. The two airplanes I flew there are being stored in long-term storage...they may very well find a second life with another Air Force, as it's unlikely the USAF will return the aging C-130E to service.

While many of you gasp at the notion of AMARG and see it as a waste of money, it's not. Aircraft wear out, and nearly every aircraft at AMARG is well past its prime. The B-52s in the photo? Old turbo-jet D and G models that are noisy fuel hogs and over 45 years old. The C-141s in the photos? Most delivered in the mid 1960s and have developed wing cracks from decades of use. The F-4s and other old fighters? Most have worn out airframes (ie cracks) and are technologically obsolete. However, they are all a good source of parts for aircraft still in service, and the DoD makes money back from scrapping and refurbishing the aircraft for other countries.

About 20 years ago, AMARG still had some WWII and Korean era aircraft sitting there. In 20 years from now, I guarantee you'll probably see current serving aircraft such as the C-17, F-15 and A-10 sitting in the bone yard. Airplanes, like cars, will only last so long.

[TankLV]

28. Thanks for the insightful and knowledgeable information...

as opposed to the usual kneeJERK assumptions...

[Shakespeare]

38. great post--thank you

My dad was career Air Force, a flight engineer on C-141s, and his last assignment was the test flight squadron at Robins AFB, in part to work on the stretch project. I grew up around those big birds (before security was nutso). :hi:

[IronLionZion]

12. 2nd largest air force, It goes: China, USA, Russia, India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_size_of_armed_forces

[Aviation Pro]

16. One could argue....

...that in terms of force multipliers that the U.S. is still number one with the rest of these scrubs way in the distance. And before anyone brings up the "fact" that the Indians "won" an exercise against us and the Russians let's bring up the real fact that the Indians would not participate if we were allowed to use our AWACS.

There is a reason why the former fourth largest army in the world (Iraq 1991) turned their MiG 25s east and landed in Iran during Desert Storm.

[kayakjohnny]

15. Whew! At least they're on the ground and not out causing a bunch of mayhem.

But, if the need ever comes up for a bunch of displaced homeowners:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. A nice testament to the futility of war.

Some of the planes that I strapped pilots into are rusting away out there. Some of the pilots never made it that far.

[Motown_Johnny]

20. we should use these instead of FEMA trailers

[lonestarnot]

25. OMG

:rofl: but not funny! :evilgrin:

[old mark]

21. There are still aircraft ther from WWII, at least I

believe there are. They are stored there because of the very low humidity, which lessens deterioration.Most of them have seen a lot of service use and are no longer "in the inventory" or in servic in regular units.

mark

[onethatcares]

22. jeez, the scrap value alone would allow

how many mountains of aluminum/titanium and copper to remain in the ground? And that's only the aircraft, where's the boneyard for the tanks?

[bdab1973]

35. Think about the facts...

Aluminum is the most plentiful metal on Earth...the entire AMARG represents a mere fraction of a fraction of a fraction by weight of all the aluminum in the Earth.

Titanium isn't found in great amounts in most of those aircraft...most of the aircraft at AMARG are decades old, and titanium was primarily used for parts that needed to be as strong as steel but as light as aluminum, and making an educated guess, most of those aircraft probably have less than 1-2% Ti. Same goes for copper...doesn't really make up much by weight.

[HughBeaumont]

23. Aaaaand this is why I call it "The Pentasewer".

This is your health care. Or college education.

Dormant.

In a desert.

Speaks volumes, doesn't it?

[bdab1973]

33. Actually, it's not your health care...

Unless you are worried what happened to your health care in 1961. Most of those aircraft were bought with tax dollars from 30, 40 or 50 years ago. They have long been paid for, and have served for many years. I think getting four or five decades of service from an aircraft that was only designed to serve 10-20 years is damn good since most people can't manage to keep their cars in running order for more than 5-6 years these days.

Those C-141s sitting in the photo have probably delivered far more relief supplies, aid and other goods over the years than all other organizations (the UN included) have done by air combined. I know for a fact they spent far more time performing acts of good will than acts of war.

[Book Lover]

39. All that means is that

military expenditures have been obscenely large for many decades, no matter if planes were shipping aid or weapons. I certainly have no beef with the disassembly process/operation, but what I and others are saying is that that's a damn lot of planes out there waiting to get taken apart.

[UK populist]

24. Meanwhile the African Union peace keepers in Darfur

Are crying out for aircraft so they can stop the genocide. I don't think it would take much to be to make landing strips for them if even ten of these planes were made available for the sake of saving lives.

[bdab1973]

31. It's actually not that simple

Creating an airfield involves a lot of time and engineering. Unless you're landing a bush plane (or perhaps a C-130), you'd have to have an improved hard-surfaced runway of around 8,000+ feet to operate most of the aircraft located in AMARG.

Additionally, realize that MOST of the aircraft stored at AMARG are marked for scrap, and aren't really usable anyways. Those that are in long term storage would have to go through several weeks of restoration before they could be flown again.

[upi402]

26. Thonk of all the beaks that got wet in that pile of cash

General Smedley Butler was right maybe huh? After WW2 many folks had their greed buttons pushed... HARD!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

[ThoughtCriminal]

32. Here's an interesting image from 1958

http://www.historicaerials.com/?poi=614

160 B-36 bombers - about half of the total production waiting to be scrapped.

More about it here:
http://thoughtcrimewave.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-06-15T21%3A49%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7

[leeroysphitz]

34. It looks like the worlds largest used car lot.

[bdab1973]

37. Most used car lots don't strip the cars of parts and scrap the rest...

That's what happens to most of those aircraft. They have lived will beyond their service life, and are either too worn out to continue in service or are technologically obsolete, making their further service a waste of our time.

[leeroysphitz]

42. "Most used car lots don't strip the cars of parts and scrap the rest"

You've obviously never been to Detroit.

[Hannah Bell]

41. nice target.

[ladyVet]

43. Whoa, does that bring back memories!

My then-husband and I used to shoot rabbits out there, from 1978-81. Man, I haven't thought about that for years!

And you'd be surprised how combat-ready some of those planes still are. If it ever came to that bad of a situation, many of those old girls can be flying again. :patriot:

[OakCliffDem]

44. The Cold War nuclear weapons program was the biggest waste of money in the history of mankind

It sure made a lot of defense contractors rich