Thursday, April 8, 2010

The 'Boneyard' that adjoins Tucson's Davis Monthan Air Force Base






ARMAC, often referred to as the 'Boneyard' is an aerospace storage and maintenance facility here in Tucson that provides a service to all branches of the US military as well as other national agencies.

Currently, the 'Boneyard' controls over 4,200 aircraft as well as many other types of military equipment. ARMAC works very hard in promoting itself as not just a 'Boneyard', but also as place where many of the stored aircraft can be returned to an operational status in a short period of time. While the planes are here at ARMAC, they are in a continual process of anti-corrosion and re-preservation work which keeps the aircraft in a stable condition during their stay.

Another major funciton of AMARC, and thus the name 'Boneyard' is that reclamation of spare parts is being done on a ongoing basis both to a schedule and to ad-hoc requests from around the world. In many ways, this is a savings to the American Taxpayer and is the only department of the Air Force that actually makes money.

Planes that are not in the process of reclamation, are sometimes returned to active flight status, as was the case with the Second Iraq War. Other planes become instructional aircraft, while others are used as targets on Air force and Army ranges, and then there are a few that find their way into museums.

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