Above:
The Rolls-Royce
Pegasus starts
to generate
its distinctive
whine as the
engine
spools up.
Jamie Hunter
Below left: Cpl
Daniel Taylor
performs
an engine
borescope
inspection on
an AV-8B+.
US ANG/MSgt
Phil Speckis set against a backdrop of a TACAIR
community that remains woefully short
of serviceable aircraft.The transition plan
Independent readiness reviews have
been used to great e ect in the last few
years to troubleshoot particular aircraft
types. One of the rst examples was
carried out on the Harrier II eet, which
was su ering from a particularly poor
readiness record.
The Harrier force, which is scheduled
to be retired in 2026, has recently seen
a 23 per cent increase in ready baseaircraft, which is the USMC’s metric for
aircraft that are ready to y. Indeed,
the improvement in the Harrier eet
led to the transition plan for the F-35
being adapted in the 2017 Marine
Aviation Plan. The next three TACAIR
units that will convert to the F-35 are
Hornet squadrons. Marine Fighter Attack
Squadron (VMFA) 122 ‘Werewolves’ is
now known as the ‘Flying Leathernecks’
and it formed in November at Yuma as
the service’s third operational Lightning
II unit. The ‘Werewolves’ replaced
VMA-311 ‘Tomcats’ in the transition
order; the latter currently operatesalongside the ‘Black Sheep’ at Yuma,
and had been tapped as the next unit
to transition to the F-35B. VMFA-314
‘Black Knights’ will now make the switch
from the F/A-18C to the F-35C in Fiscal
Year 2019, with VMFA(AW)-225 ‘Vikings’
trading its F/A-18Ds for F-35Bs from late
FY 2020. VMFA-314, which is stationed at
Miramar alongside the ‘Vikings’ as part
of Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) 11, will
be the rst of four Marine squadrons to
begin ying the F-35C carrier variant.
For the Harriers, Marine Attack Training
Squadron (VMAT) 203 ‘Hawks’ will
continue training new pilots until 2022FEATURE ARTICLE // VMA-214
28 February 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
24-35 VMA-214 C.indd 28 13/12/2017 14:42