Following World
War II, the Army's San Antonio Air Technical Service Command established a
storage facility for B-29 and C-47 aircraft at the then Davis-Monthan
Field. In April 1946, after
Davis-Monthan became an element of the Strategic Air Command, the 4105th Army
Air Force Base Unit, became a separate tenant facility. Today, this facility, having undergone a
number of name changes, is the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration
Group (AMARG), responsible for the
storage of nearly 3,200 aircraft and more than 6,300 engines from the five
Department of Defense services, U.S. government agencies, including the
Department of Homeland Security (Coast Guard, Customs and Border Patrol), NASA,
the Department of Agriculture (U.S. Forest Service), the National Science
Foundation and the Smithsonian Institute.
AMARG also stores aircraft for allied nations. Additionally, AMARG maintains nearly 280,000
line-items of aircraft production special tooling and special test equipment.
The primary
reasons for selecting the Tucson area for this storage center were low humidity
and alkaline soil. These conditions make it possible to store aircraft
indefinitely with a minimum of deterioration and corrosion. In addition, the
soil (called caliche) is extremely hard, making it possible to park even the
heaviest aircraft on the desert floor without constructing concrete or steel
parking ramps.
This facility
is a key force multiplier for the Department of Defense and continues to allow
the United States to rapidly adjust to the global environment, national
security threats and fiscal realities.
As America’s National Airpower Reservoir, AMARG has played a major role
in historic post-WWII milestones including the Berlin Airlift, the Korean war,
the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm,
Bosnia/Kosovo, Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, and the global war on
terror.
When the former
Soviet Union closed road, rail, and canal traffic into the city of Berlin in
1948, approximately one fourth of the stored C-47 cargo aircraft were withdrawn
from storage and returned to flying service in support of the Berlin
Airlift.
During the
1950s, aircraft parts reclamation and foreign military aircraft sales became an
important part of the mission--supporting allied interoperability and relieving
an excess of still-valuable surplus aircraft.
In the early 1950s, AMARG withdrew and regenerated several hundred B-29s
to support bombing missions in North Korea, as well as more than 80 B-29s to
provide the United Kingdom with an interim long-range strike capability between
the Avro Lincoln bomber of WWII and arrival of the all-jet English Electric
“Canberra” (U.S. Martin B-57).
In late 1963,
the Secretary of Defense directed the consolidation of all military aircraft
storage and disposition centers into a single entity located at Davis-Monthan.
This facility became the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center
(MASDC) in February 1965. Approximately
800 Navy aircraft were transferred from the Navy Storage Depot at Litchfield
Park near Phoenix at this time.
During the
1970’s, following the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, the storage facility
reached its all-time high total of 6,080 aircraft in storage. In 1977, a new mission was added with the
commencement of a program to withdraw from storage aircraft destined to become
full-scale aerial targets (un-manned drone aircraft). Nearly 1,100 aircraft (F-102 Delta Dagger,
F-100 Super Sabre, F-106 Delta Dart, F-4 Phantom II and F-16 Fighting Falcon)
have been processed for drone conversion in the forty-seven years since program
began.
In 1985,
recognition of the facility’s expanding mission, which now also included
limited depot-level maintenance, storage of production tooling, together with
other non-aviation assets, prompted the name change to Aerospace Maintenance
and Regeneration Center (AMARC).
In 1991 AMARC
oversaw the both the elimination of the last 443 ground-launched cruise
missiles as part of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, along with
the elimination of 314 B-52 bomber aircraft begun under the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (START).
In May 2007,
the facility was renamed the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group
(AMARG), aligning under the Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill AFB, Utah. This change provided AMARG with the ability
to have reach-back capability for support activities as well as a group and
squadron structure more traditional to the Air Force.
With an
original acquisition price of more than $34 billion, the aircraft stored at
this 2,600-acre repository, America’s National Airpower Reservoir, provide a
unique savings account from which military units throughout the world may
withdraw parts and aircraft. For
example, in fiscal year 2023, AMARG reclaimed nearly 7,000 aircraft parts
enabling the warfighter to project combat airpower at a cost avoidance of more
than one-third of billion dollars.
Today AMARG
continues to strive for agility, innovation, and growth by delivering
excellent, safe, and compliant maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO),
logistics, storage, and support services to our customers. In addition to aircraft preservation and
storage, AMARG’s capabilities include aircraft regeneration or restoring
aircraft to flying status for the U.S. Armed Forces, Government Agencies, and
allied foreign military forces; parts reclamation and aircraft disposal
preparation, in addition to depot-level maintenance as an adjunct to the Air
Force Sustainment Center’s three Air Logistics Complexes, truly America’s
National Airpower Reservoir.