Hide Article Text (OCR)
Harriers back in air; their future arguedFrom Staff and AP ReportsSeveral Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers have been authorized to resume flight operations after being grounded since Friday because of two crashes in two weeks.Resumption of all flights was authorized after an investigative team concluded that the two most recent accidents appear to have no common cause, according to an announcement from Marine Corps headquarters Wednesday. An investigation is continuing to look into the crashes for any potential hazards.Harrier squadrons are baaed at Yuma's Marine Corps Air Station and Cherry Point, N.C. About one-third of the total 79 jets based at MCAS-Yuma were affected by the grounding order.Meanwhile, there’s a dispute between government auditors who want the Marines to buy new Harriers and the Pentagon, which wants to spend $2.2 billion on upgrading the old ones.Focus of the controversy is 72 AV-8B Harrier day-attack jets, virtual air-combat pterodactyls because they are largely useless at night or when visibility is obscured by smoke, dust or haze.The Marine Corps’ other Harriers are the more modem night-attack aircraft with a new fuselage, night war-fighting capabilities in the cockpit, an improved engine and advanced radar system.The day-attack jets had been pounded since Friday after a Yuma-based Harrier crashed during training Feb. 28 in the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range near Yuma. The pilot ejected safely. In a crash two weeks earlier at Cherry Point, the pilot was killed.To bring the older Harriers into the modem age of aviation warfare, where the time of choice for attack is after dark, the Defense Department intends to dismantle the — planes, refurbish used components, add a new fuselage, engine and radar system and put the planes back to work.The Pentagon calculates the cost at between $23 million and $29.5 million per jet and anticipates it will take 10 years to modify the fleet.But the Government Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, contends that for about the same amount of money — $23.6 million per unit — the Marines could buy themselves a brand-new aircraft.The Pentagon has challenged the GAO’s findings, which it contends underestimates the cost of purchasing new planes. According to the Pentagon’s Naval Air Systems Command and the Cost Analysis Improvement Group, it would cost nearly $30 million to produce each new radar-equipped jetBut GAO investigators counter that the Pentagon is using outdated figures and that more recent data show the price tag of a new plane is substantially less.Staff Writer Joyce Christie oontrib-uted to this report.
Newspaper Details
Yuma Sun
Yuma, Arizona, US
Thu, Mar 07, 1996
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Yuma C.
AZ, USA 10 Aug 2023
Other Publications Near Yuma, Arizona
Yuma Weekly Sun
Yuma Arizona Sentinel
Sun Advertiser
Yuma Morning Sun
Yuma Valley News
