Eerie multi-million aircraft graveyard in Tuscon, Arizona housing US military's out-of-commission planes valued at $34b | 16S1KSG | 2024-04-28 12:08:01
OVER 3,000 giant retired airplanes are kept on a site in the middle of the desert – it's the world's largest collection of military aircraft.
The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group is located right in the heart of Tuscon, Arizona.
Some of the out-of-commission planes never even had the chance to go into production before being put down and thrown into the desert-based aero graveyard, according to Business Insider.
AMARG started back in 1946, after World War II because the army needed a place to store its old planes.
The 309th AMARG sits on nearly 2,000 football fields worth of open desert.
The boneyard also has over 800 mechanics who come through to claim scraps they can use.
The technicians also regenerate some of the retired aircraft in hopes that the planes can go back into service.
"I can't just pull over an airplane like you can a car," 309th AMARG US Airforce Commander Colonel Jennifer Barnard said.
"And we have to make sure that these aircraft are safe to fly."
The veteran airforce mechanic said the goal of the mechanics who work on the airplanes is to ensure that 309th AMARG is not "like a cemetery for the aircraft."
"The assets stored here are worth somewhere between $34 billion and $35 billion," Barnard stressed.
"If you were to try to replace them all, it's a big number."
<!-- End of Brightcove Player --> The planes that are in the graveyard are sent there from all over the world – some are even from foreign US allies.
"We have about 3,100 airplanes," the Colonel stated.
"The planes are mostly military. They come from the Air Force, the Navy, the Army, and the Marines. We have over 80 different types of airplanes here."
She said that the Arizona spot for 309th AMARG was carefully chosen.
</div> </div> "Our guys take pride in being boneyard wranglers," Barnard said.
Arizona has the ideal weather for storing the pricey aircraft.
It has a hot climate, there's little rainfall in the area which means no humidity and Barnard even noted that the soil is perfect.
"It's as hard as concrete," she explained.
This is crucial to the site as the planes stored there are very heavy and sit for long periods of time so the hard ground ensures the assets don't sink.
"The dryness, as well as the lack of acidity in the soil, prevent corrosion on the assets," Barnard added.
If not fixed and called back into service, aircraft can sit on the site for 50 years.
On average, AMARG artisans regenerate 100 military planes each year.
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