F-35s on hand in this important theater,
plus there’s two deployments that we no
longer have to service, so that’s given us
all some welcome breathing room.’
McGregor took command of VMA-214
last June, and is well aware of both the
history of the squadron and its modern
importance as it prepares to celebrate
75 years of the ‘Black Sheep’ in 2018.
Speaking to Combat Aircraft in October
he said, ‘We have 12 jets here at Yuma
right now and a normal Harrier squadron
complement is 16 aircraft. We also
have a detachment with the 15th MEU
with eight jets in theater [supporting
Operation ‘Inherent Resolve]. We typically
support the MEU with a six-plane
detachment lead by a Major with nine or
10 pilots and about 100 Marines. In fact,
we have a fair few Harriers around right
now. After VMA-211 became VMFA-211
we temporarily found ourselves with a
lot of jets. When the next AV-8B squadron
transitions to the F-35 the entire
remaining Harrier eet will be radar-
equipped AV-8B+ jets.’
The older, non-radar Harriers — known
as night attack jets — are being phased
out as they are reaching the end of their
service life, leaving a eet of ‘radar birds’
equipped with the AN/APG-65. Despite
the recent availability of aircraft, thislaser, GPS and dual-mode weapons, the
gun, and now we have laser-guided
rockets.’ McGregor calls the 500lb GBU-54
Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM)
the Harrier’s ‘go-to’ weapon. Whereas in
the past the Harrier was something of
a blunt instrument, today’s mentality is,
‘one target, one bomb’. ‘The new guys
can’t comprehend the way we used to
do things,’ smiles McGregor. ‘In fact we
loaded up 12 Mk82s on a jet a few weeks
ago ‘wall-to-wall’ and went and dropped
for them to see how it was done.’Relentless pace of
operations
In recent years the Harrier and Hornet
squadrons have shouldered a relentless
deployment burden. McGregor says
that a Harrier unit has been constantly
deployed, either for ‘dirt dets’ at land
bases in the Middle East or as part of a
Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) on a
carrier. These operational commitments
come in a number of guises. There’s a
Marine TACAIR air defense presence in
Bahrain, currently manned by a Hornet
squadron, but it rotates based on
availability and it may swing back to the
Harrier soon. ‘For the past few years our
deployment rates were unsustainable,’
says McGregor. ‘That’s the Marine Corps,right? We get it done. But things are
getting better. What’s helped us a lot
is that the F-35 has deployed to MCAS
Iwakuni in Japan — that’s really taken
two deployments o the table for the
rest of TACAIR.’
VMFA-121’s permanent basing at
Iwakuni has removed the need for
one of the two UDP (Unit Deployment
Program) dets in Japan, and the F-35Bs
can now ll the requirement to embark
on the resident amphibious assault ship.
While the F/A-18Ds of VMFA(AW)-242
‘Bats’ remain in Japan, VMA-311 ‘Tomcats’
recently completed the nal Harrier UDP
to Iwakuni. McGregor says, ‘Two lines
in our Marine rotation are now being
serviced by the F-35B, which is great for a
number of reasons. We now have MarineBelow: The
radome for the
AN/APG-65
identifi es this
as an AV-8B+.
The aircraft
carries a Litening
targeting pod on
the centerline
in between the
GAU-12 gun and
its ammunition
pod. Jamie Hunterhttp://www.combataircraft.net // February 2018 27
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