The United States Marines' Harrier IIs are preparing for their final war

The US Marines' McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) fighters have been in service for 41 years.

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The first Marine squadron to operate this type of aircraft was VMM-331, which received its first Harrier IIs on August 31, 1984. That squadron was disbanded on October 1, 1992. Over these four decades, USMC Harrier IIs have seen action in the Gulf War (1990), Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), and Libya (2011), among other countries. It has been a highly valued aircraft among the Marines due to its high availability rates.

Today, only one Marine squadron still flies the Harrier II: VMA-223 "Bulldogs," a unit created in 1942 during World War II and based at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. That squadron has been flying the Harrier II since 1987 and will retire them from service in September 2026.

Despite having less than a year until retirement, these veteran fighters are not idle. Since last summer, VMA-223 has been flying its Harrier IIs aboard its home ship, the amphibious aircraft carrier USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), in the Caribbean Sea. They are integrated into VMM-263, a unit of MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. The USS Iwo Jima is currently one of 12 US Navy ships deployed in Operation Southern Spear near Venezuela against drug trafficking by the Cartel of the Suns, a criminal organization embedded in the Nicolás Maduro dictatorship.

The multimedia portal DVIDShub.net has been publishing photos of these Harrier IIs aboard the USS Iwo Jima during its deployment in that area (although they are publishing them weeks late, presumably for security reasons). The photos you see in this article correspond to that deployment. VMA-223 still has about 20 Harrier IIs in active service and everything indicates that they are preparing for their last war, if Donald Trump isn't bluffing and the United States Armed Forces finally take action on Venezuelan soil.

Despite its age, the Harrier II is an excellent close air support aircraft for amphibious operations, and although it has the more modern F-35B - a fifth-generation fighter with stealth technology that makes it almost invisible to enemy radar - it seems that the Marines have not wanted to leave aside their old workhorse in this new operation, which could include amphibious actions.

In addition to being deployed on the USS Iwo Jima, the Harrier IIs of VMA-223 are using a base on the mainland: the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, in Ceiba (Puerto Rico), which I talked about here last year in an article on Explorando.info. This former base, abandoned since 2004, was reactivated by the United States at the end of last summer to host the deployment of military aircraft for Operation Southern Spear. Yesterday, the YouTube channel HR Planespotter published a video showing Harrier IIs from VMA-223 operating from that base:

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Photos: U.S. Marine Corps / U.S. Navy.