{"id":65369,"date":"2026-06-07T21:59:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T19:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=65369"},"modified":"2026-06-07T22:12:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:12:54","slug":"the-marines-farewell-to-their-harrier-iis-spain-is-now-their-oldest-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/06\/07\/the-marines-farewell-to-their-harrier-iis-spain-is-now-their-oldest-operator\/","title":{"rendered":"The Marines' farewell to their Harrier IIs: Spain is now their oldest operator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week, the United States Marine Corps Aviation (USMCA) experienced a moment of great nostalgia with its Harrier II.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/12\/15\/the-united-states-marines-harrier-iis-are-preparing-for-their-final-war\/\">The United States Marines' Harrier IIs are preparing for their final war<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/08\/03\/the-end-of-the-operational-life-of-a-harrier-ii-plus-and-the-process-to-send-it-to-a-museum\/\">The end of the operational life of a Harrier II Plus and the process to send it to a museum<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>On June 3, the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, North Carolina, held a <strong>farewell ceremony<\/strong> for its last McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II fighter jets, an aircraft model that arrived at the USMC on August 31, 1984. Here you can see a video of this farewell ceremony <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/video\/1009267\/vma-223-harrier-sundown-ceremony\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published by the USMC<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"US Marines Retirement Ceremony for Harrier IIs\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kW5rInT2GaA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Below you can see some photos of this farewell ceremony, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/image\/9723687\/vma-223-harrier-sundown-ceremony\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published by the US Marine Corps<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55320479108_43bacab32b_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55320479108_52d6324759_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The last Marine squadron to operate these aircraft was VMA-223 \"Bulldogs,\"<\/strong> based at MCAS Cherry Point. This squadron had been using the Harrier II since October 1987.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55320533444_0f49a83276_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55320533444_1ddb9b6352_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The USMC's Harrier IIs have seen action in the Gulf War (1990), Yugoslavia (1999), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), and Libya (2011), and are highly valued by the Marines for their high availability rates.<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/12\/15\/the-united-states-marines-harrier-iis-are-preparing-for-their-final-war\/\">They were also deployed in the operation to capture Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in Venezuela earlier this year<\/a>, but there are no reports of them seeing action.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55320533449_2493e0c96c_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55320533449_0715dab78e_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After nearly 42 years of service and participation in several wars, <strong>the Harrier II is being retired in the United States, and the F-35B is finally taking over from its predecessor<\/strong>, marking a new era for the Marines. The F-35B is a stealth fighter, meaning it has a very low radar signature, and is technologically very advanced.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55319407832_10c626af75_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55319407832_e32c7e89ca_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Now only the Harrier IIs of the Spanish and Italian navies remain operational<\/strong>. Following the retirement of the Marines' AV-8Bs, Spain will now be the oldest operator of this aircraft, as these planes arrived in the Spanish Navy between 1987 and 1988. The Italian Navy has had its Harrier IIs in service since 1991. <strong>The United Kingdom operated the Harrier II between 1989 and 2011<\/strong> (in the case of the RAF; the Royal Navy operated these aircraft between 2006 and 2010).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55319407882_6f412f3713_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55319407882_3f638397da_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Spanish Navy plans to keep its Harrier IIs in service until 2032<\/strong>, with support from Airbus and by purchasing some fighters retired from service by the US to \"cannibalize\" them, as the practice of salvaging parts from old aircraft is known in the aeronautical field. <strong>Like the US Marines, the Italian Navy has been operating the F-35B for years.<\/strong> Italy plans to retire its last Harrier IIs in 2028.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55320533439_0a84d8b9cf_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55320533439_a0e27edcfd_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Spain is the only Harrier II operator that has not purchased, nor plans to purchase, the F-35B<\/strong>, and currently there is no other model on the market capable of operating from the Spanish aircraft carrier \"Juan Carlos I.\" Therefore, <strong>after the Harrier II's retirement, the Spanish Navy will be left without a carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft<\/strong> and will lose a key capability for providing air support to its amphibious operations. This is regrettable and stems solely from poor political decisions.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Video and photos: U.S. Marine Corps.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, the United States Marine Corps Aviation (USMCA) experienced a moment of great nostalgia with its Harrier II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19630,15961,11545],"tags":[24975,1112,19751,10431,673,23048,20185],"class_list":["post-65369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1a-plana-defense-eng","category-bloque-6-english","category-navy","tag-mcas-cherry-point","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-av-8b-harrier-ii","tag-north-carolina","tag-united-states","tag-us-marine-corps","tag-united-states-marine-corps-aviation-usmca","tag-vma-223-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}