THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994 TAG: 9406200051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ESTES THOMPSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: 940620 LENGTH: HAVELOCK
Their solution? Recycle major components of old Harrier jump-jets for a savings to taxpayers that could total $730 million.
{REST} Beginning this month, the Marines plan to send some 73 old Harrier AV-8B jets, which are designed to take off vertically without much of a runway, to the Naval Aviation Depot here. The jets will be stripped of wing, tail and other assemblies that will be renewed and sent to the jet's manufacturer for installation on new fuselages.
The rebuilt jets will join the a small fleet of brand new radar-equipped Harrier II Plus jets.
Harriers are uniquely suited to the Marine Corps' needs, said Capt. Michael Butters, a Harrier pilot and program officer for the remanufacturing project.
``We can base closer to the battlefield,'' Butters said. ``A road surface is all we would need to work off of, or a parking lot or a grass field. No other aircraft can do that.''
The Harrier is designed to protect and help Marine riflemen on the ground during battle, Butters said. The jets can be flown off helicopter carriers and don't need the arresting cables for short runway landings that most jets require.
The first Harrier to be stripped arrived earlier in June at the aviation depot at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. Because the program is new, work is progressing slowly but will speed up as it becomes more routine.
Once parts are taken off the fuselage, they will be shipped to St. Louis, home of McDonnell Douglas Aerospace. McDonnell Douglas has been given a $102 million Harrier remanufacturing contract for four aircraft in fiscal year 1994.
Brand new Harriers equipped with radar would cost $30 million to $35 million each, said George Russell, a program manager on the Harrier project at Cherry Point. The remanufacturing saves about $10 million per jet, he said.
``The plan is to do 73 aircraft,'' Russell said. ``These are the old day attack airplanes.''
Day attack airplanes don't have radar. Night attack planes have infrared devices for the pilot to see at night. With the radar airplanes, Harrier pilots can fly in zero-visibility weather.
New Harriers that emerge from the McDonnell Douglas plant will have new engines, a new fuselage and a radar system.
It may seem that the project is recycling parts, but the Marines don't see it that way. Butters said recycling means taking old parts and making new ones out of them. Remanufacturing means using the same parts and reworking them.
``This is a much bigger deal for remanufacturing,'' Russell said. ``A few other programs have done some upgrade projects. This is the first project of this scope.''
by CNB