THE MARINE'S AV-8B: WHY AND HOW?

The first operational Fleet Marine Force mission in the AV-8B was flown on 21 January 1984. Two and a half years later, there have been thousands of missions flown from ships, restricted sites, and county highways, with and without ordnance. And often with brand new, inexperienced lieutenants at the controls. Over 115 pilots have been trained to at least a combat capable stage, over 800 Marine technicians and mechanics have been qualified to a comparable level, and three squadrons have been "stood up" with a fourth fast approaching its "training completion" date. Since that first flight, the Marine fleet of AV–8B's has averaged 41.5 flight hours per month on each aircraft, which is a 36% higher utilization rate than was originally planned for the airframe. But despite this higher utilization rate, which is driven by the need to meet pilot training goals even with a reduced procurement rate, individual aircraft mission capability has not suffered. Quite the contrary. In these first two and a half years of operation, the AV-8B has sustained an average mission capable rate of almost 90%. Equally as impressive is the fact that these high rates of utilization and mission readiness have been achieved with only 40–50% of the maintenance man hours that were required to keep its predecessor flying at lower levels. These, and many other major and minor accomplishments, when coupled with a complete absence of any serious "hiccups", attest to the fact that introduction of the AV-8B Harrier II has been an unqualified success. And all the more so when we consider that single-service procurement of a major weapons system such as the AV-8B has been rare for the U.S. Marine Corps, which normally satellites off the research, development, and procurement endeavors of its larger and more affluent sister services.