HARRIER PILOTS TO TRAIN HERE
TF Note: Why are Harriers from Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma being sent to Tucson to do combat training? The terrain is basically the same in Yuma as it is here in Tucson. Yuma is closer to the Barry M. Goldwater range where they actually do the training. Could it be that they have more golf courses in Tucson? Why are they taking the risk of flying over Tucson’s densely-populated neighborhoods? Recall that there have been two crashes of MC-Yuma Harriers in recent years, one in a Yuma Neighborhood.
Practice set for 8 Marine jets Story(107)
Carol Ann Alaimo Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Monday, October 18, 2010
Harrier jets have the unusual ability to land and take off vertically. .
..Some warbirds rarely seen in Tucson will be flying over the city during the next few weeks.
Eight AV-8B Harrier II jets, which can land vertically like helicopters and fly like other jets, will spend the rest of the month here preparing for upcoming war tours.
They’ll be visiting Davis-Monthan Air Force Base from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma during the last two weeks of October, a military news release said.
The jets are here as part of the Operation Snowbird program run by the Air National Guard’s 162nd Fighter Wing in Tucson.
The Harrier has a higher decibel level than the A-10s normally flown from D-M. Its pilots have been instructed to comply with local noise-reduction measures, the news release said.
Southern Arizona is a favored Air Force training area because its mountains and deserts mimic real-world conditions in war zones overseas.
The Harrier is one of the few fixed-wing aircraft in the U.S. arsenal that can take off straight up, then switch to conventional flight, and it’s a sought-after specimen on the military air show circuit.
It is due to eventually be replaced by a version of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with similar capabilities.
Contact reporter Carol Ann Alaimo at calaimo@azstarnet.com or at 573-4138.
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