The Reclamation process is why the 'Boneyard' reference has been pinned on AMARG by so many people, including the US military officialdom. On first sight the RIT (Reclamation Insurance Type) area appears to contain a mass of broken aircraft in various stages of dereliction. Many are supported by wooden cradles due to their undercarriage being removed, others are missing major components like wings and vertical stabalizers, some aircraft that are still listed on the AMARG inventory are little more than a pile of unrecognizable metal.
However, the reclamation undertaken at AMARG is done in a very controlled, deliberate manner and many of the 'carcases' in the RIT are still worth a considerable amount of dollars if broken down into their constituant parts. Reclamation is one of the main reasons AMARG remains viable as a facility, it has the skills to extract the very last tax dollars from aircraft that have reached the end of their useful operational lives.
Reclamation is carried out according to one of two schedules:
Perform Programmed (Routine) Reclamation - Programmed reclamation is peformed on an ongoing basis. The owning service Weapons System Manager is responsible for maintaining a save list which specifies the range and quantity of spares required, the information from these lists is fed into the overall reclamation schedule to ensure the required timescales are met.
As components are removed from the donor aircraft they pass through cleaning and inspection workshops to ensure they are of a serviceable quality. After this the components are packaged and shipped according to directions specified by the owning service.
Perform Priority Removal - The owning service of an aircraft can contact AMARG to arrange a priority removal of a component to satisfy an urgent requirement. A removal request can be made under on of two priorities. Priority A requests should be completed within 10 days, priority B requests within 30 days.
A removal notice is prepared containing all of the relevant information required by the reclamation team. Once removed, the parts are routed through cleaning, inspection or other shops for testing as required, then packaged and shipped. After the removal of the component the donor aircraft is resealed using Spraylat so that component deteriation is kept to a minimum.
When there is no reclamation potential left for an aircraft, AMARG will obtain permission to dispose of the remaining airframe from the owning service. When permission has been granted AMARG Technicians remove all hazardous or dangerous materials from the aircraft. These materials can contain asbestos and radioactive materials which have to be carefully disposed of.
Finally engines are removed and the aircraft is dismantled.
After this work has been carried out the aircraft is turned over to the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) for it's disposal. The DRMO performs the disposal and sales function for all of the US Military Services and returns the proceeds of sale back to the U.S. Treasury.
Several Process-out methods exist and the one used for a particular instance will depend on the final disposition of the aircraft.
If an aircraft is no longer suitable for reclamation or for regeneration it will be offered for sale to the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) by it's controling service. DRMO will then organise it's sale for scrap metal or for the sale of any recoverable parts that still exist in the aircraft. Regular auctions are held for these aircraft and the vast majority are purchased by local authorised agents and scrapped.
Before any aircraft are transferred to the DRMO they must be prepared for disposal by the controlling service. This preparation is carried out by AMARG and includes the removal of any hazardous materials, the demilitarization of the aircraft and the collection of all documents associated with the aircraft. Any revenue from the sale of aircraft are returned to the U.S Treasury.
Process-In prepares aircraft for long or short term storage at AMARG. Initial preservation, represervation and maintenance during storage is all carried out under this process. The following is a breakdown of the steps that an aircraft will go through from its delivery to AMARG to its placement on one of the facilities long term storage areas.
Receive Aerospace Vehicle - The majority of the aircraft that arrive at AMARG are delivered by flight. In some cases aircraft may not be capable of flight and are delivered by overland transport. In this case AMARG have the capability to deploy a team of specialists to assist in the disassembly and transportation of the aircraft to AMARG.
Aircraft are flown to AMARG by the owning service. On arrival the pilots are debriefed where details of in-flight discrepancies are recorded, aircraft records are handed over and AMARG takes custody of the aircraft. The aircraft is tied down in the receiving area and samples are taken of engine oil, hydraulic fluid and landing gear fluid for analysis by a laboratory.
Pre-Induction Safing Procedures - Aircraft are made safe by the removal of hazardous and dangerous components or materials. This includes the removal of PAD/CAD (Propellant Actuated Device/Cartridge Actuated Device) items. High-pressure systems are bled and spring-loaded systems are relieved, survival kits are removed and any remaining weapons are removed for specialized storage.
Aerospace Vehicle Inventory - During this process a complete inventory of the aircraft is performed to document any missing items. Classified items are removed and sent to a secure storage area. Pilferable items or items subject to deterioration are placed in storage or are disposed of.
Preserve Aircraft Systems - On the Flush Farm the aircrafts fuel systems are drained, the resulting fuel will be stored for future re-use. The empty fuel tanks are filled using NATO grade 1010 preservation oil, the oil is pumped through the entire fuel system to preserve all of its components (tanks, pipes, pumps, etc.). Depending on the type of engine engine it is either motored or run to fully circulate the pure oil. The surplus oil is then removed and recovered for future use.
Wash and Evaluate Aircraft - On the Wash Rack the aircraft is thoroughly cleaned and inspected for corrosion. Each component is evaluated and after documentation of any problem that is found it is treated according to instructions from the owning service. The Wash Rack forms part of the large flightline which runs north to south on the west side of kolb Road.
Seal Aerospace Vehicle for Storage - Most of the aircraft at AMARG are protected by a vinyl compound called Spraylat which is sprayed on as two coats. The first coat is black in colour and seals the aircraft to protect its systems from dust, moisture, animals and insects. The second coat, which is white in colour, helps to reflect sunlight and heat to protect the aircraft from excessive internal temperatures. Before the spraylat is applied the engine intake and exhaust areas have desiccant material installed into them, and other openings are filled with barrier material of barrier tape. All access panels, doors, plates and other small openings are sealed using tapes. Brushable spraylat is used in conjunction with the barrier materials and tape to ensure a complete seal. Cockpits are vented and glass and acrylic surfaces are cleaned before the spraylat is applied to them.
After all this work has been completed the internal temperatures will be within 10-15 degrees farenhuit of the outside air temperature. Without this protection the internal temperatures would reach in access of 200 degrees and this would result in the rapid deteriation of the plastic, rubber and heat sensitive components.
Transport Aircraft to Final Storage Site - The aircraft are then towed to the designated storage position and are secured.
While at AMARG aircraft can be stored under the following categories:
Type 1000 | Aircraft stored in near-flyaway condition. Can be stored without re-preservation for a period of 4 years. Aircraft stored under this category may be downgraded to Type 2000. |
Type 1500 |
Aircraft previously fully preserved. With regard to U.S. Navy aircraft - Strike board decision to not re-preserve the aircraft at the 4-year mark. |
Type 2000 | Generally aircraft allocated for reclamation purposes. Aircraft stored under this category may be downgraded to Type 4000. |
Type 3000 |
Flyable hold for 90 days or more, pending transfer, sale or disposition.
|
Type 4000 | Minimal preservation. Generally aircraft stored in this category are awaiting disposal. |
Quite simply it is a list of the aircraft stored at AMARG.
AMARG is typically responsible for the storage and maintenance of over 4,000 aircraft. These aircraft all have identifying serial numbers or registrations (some call these 'Tail Numbers') that uniquely identified them when they were operational. When aircraft arrived during the MASDC and AMARC years they were allocated a 5 digit (MASDC years) or 8 digit (AMARC years) inventory number, called a Process Control Number (PCN), which incorporates information specifically required by the systems and processes operated at the Center. The list of these inventory numbers, along with the type of aircraft, date of arrival and current location on the facility went to make up the inventory that is referred to regularly on this web site.
At the end of 1997 AMARC began to make available the inventory from their web site under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For several years afterwards the inventory was updated on a regular/not-so regular basis, ranging from daily to monthly updates, each update consisting of a 'snapshot' at that particular moment of time. Of course, as soon as that snapshot is taken it could well be out of date by the arrival, departure or movement of aircraft at AMARC but everyone agreed it was a tremendous resource to have access to.
Following the tragic events of 9/11 and the increased security and military operations which preceeded, the inventory was withdrawn from public release. It wasn't until 2011, after the center became the AMARG, that the inventory began to be publicly released again. The format of the AMARG releases tend to be less standard than those provided by AMARC, they are tending to be contained within Adobe Acrobat .PDF documents instead of Html pages, and the records are sometimes listed in different sort orders. However, it is good news to all who are interested in AMARG that they are again available after such a long period.
In the past there have been some aircraft that were listed on the inventory that were not present at AMARG, most notably the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, but this is now not the case. However, there is always the chance of aircraft being present at AMARG which are NOT listed on the inventory, some of which are just passing through and others which turn out to be longer term residents.
The AMARC FOIA Inventory Listing
Below is a snapshot of part of the FOIA listing from Monday April 16th 2001.
From left to right the columns of the listing supplied the following information:
Column No. | Column Name | Description |
1. | Number | AMARC Inventory Number/PCN |
2. | Location | Last recorded location at AMARC |
3. | Tail Number | Serial number/registration. This could sometimes, although not very often, be a serial number 'devised' for AMARC use only. |
4. | Arrival Date | Date of arrival at AMARC, format 'dd-mmm-yy' |
5. | MDS |
Standing for 'Mission Design Series' this is an AMARC short description of the aircraft type. |
Inventory Numbers or PCNs (Process Control Number)
Every aircraft that arrived at MASDC and AMARC for storage or maintenance had an inventory number allocated to it, the aircraft to be stored had their number stencilled onto the airframe at their time of arrival. The aircraft that passed through AMARC for only maintenance generally did not have the number painted on them due to their relatively short stay, examples of these were the A-10 Thunderbolts that passed through AMARC for GPS system upgrades.
AMARC PCNs consisted of 8 characters and these were broken down into 4 sections, see below:
The first character signified the type of equipment the item consists of, inventory numbers for aerospace vehicles always started with an 'A'. The second character specified the branch of the military to which the aircraft was assigned, the list to the right details the designators used:
The third section of the inventory number consisted of a two letter aircraft type designator. US Navy and Marines aircraft types had number/alpha formatted designators, for example 1K, 3A, 6A, etc.
The second character of the Navy designators generally described the type of mission the aircraft type fulfilled. See the list to the right for some of the most common mission designators:
The Air Force and Army types have alpha/alpha designators, for example TF, FE, HV. The first character of the Air Force and Army designators generally describes the type of mission the aircraft type fulfills. See the list to the right for some of the most common mission designators: Over the years aircraft type designators can be re-used to identify different aircraft types, this is due to the limited combinations available. This, however, was a more common practice in the earlier years due to the greater number of aircraft types that passed through the center.
The fourth and last section consisted of a 4-digit number that is sequentially allocated to each new arrival of that specfic aircraft type. This is the section that gave each aircraft its unique AMARC identification as numbers were typically not re-used1. However, if an aircraft left AMARC and returned at a future it would usually be allocated a new inventory number.
MASDC PCNs typically consisted of only 5 characters using the same format as the last two sections of the AMARC PCN (alpha/alpha designator and 4-digit seqeuntial number).
The AMARG FOIA Inventory Listing
AMARG made the decision to no longer use a PCN and instead stencil the aircraft type/model and it's serial number onto the aircraft to identify it. As a result the inventory no longer lists any PCNs as can be seen in the example provided below,
Below is a snapshot of part of the FOIA listing from July 2012.
You will notice that the aircraft type (MDS) is displayed in a different format and the aircraft location omits the row and position precision that used to be provided by AMARC. The sort order in this example is by serial number, but the majority of the time it is provided in MDS/serial number order.
1. PCNs have sometimes been re-used on occassions when the aircraft type alpha/alpha designators were re-used for another aircraft type. There have also been occassions that a PCN has been re-used during an inventory tidy-up, where the sequential number was reset to 1.
AMARG, or the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (previously known as AMARC, the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center), is a joint service facility managed by the US Air Force Material Command located in the city of Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Often referred to as 'The Boneyard', AMARG is an aerospace storage and maintenance facility adjoining Davis-Monthan Air Force Base which provides a service to all branches of the US military (Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Army), as well as other national agencies.
Typically controlling over 4,200 aircraft as well as many other types of military equipment, AMARG works very hard in promoting itself as not just a 'Boneyard' and takes every opportunity in explaining how it operates its cost effective, tax saving operations. Many of the stored aircraft can be returned to an operational status in a short period of time and there is a continual process of anti-corrosion and re-preservation work which keeps the aircraft in a stable condition during their stay.
The reason the Boneyard reference exists is due to other work that AMARG carries out, that of reclamation of spare parts and the eventual disposal of spent airframes. The facility can be divided into two distinct areas, the RIT (Reclamation Insurance Type) area located to the east side of Kolb Road is littered with aircraft in various states of completeness. The junkyard appearance belies the fact that these aircraft are controlled by a process of careful part reclamation, both to a schedule and to ad-hoc requests. On careful examination many of these aircraft can be seen re-sealed to protect the remaining components from the dirt and heat.
There are many times that aircraft from the RIT area leave AMARG to become instructional aircraft, targets on Army or Air Force ranges, museum exhibits or display pieces, although most end up being smelted down into ingots by nearby metal processors.
Over the years AMARG has also been heavily involved in the elimination of B-52 Stratofortresses under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and were also responsible for the eliminiation of 445 Ground Launch Cruise Missiles (GLCM) and their launchers under the INF Treaty.
In more recent times AMARG has become more involved in depot repair, maintenance and modification work on types such as the A-10 Thunderbolt and C-130 Hercules. Of particular note is AMARG's work on the A-10 "Hog Up" program which is expected to extend their life in the Air Force fleet to 2028, and the commencement of Programmed Depot Maintenance (PDM) overhauls of C-130s, the first of which was completed on February 20th, 2009. Another example of depot-level maintenance was the mandatory checks and repairs that AMARG carried out to 84 A-10 following the discovery of wing cracks in the fleet at the end of 2008.