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309 AMARG
Seeing one aircraft parked in the desert is an unusual sight, let alone seeing thousands in one place. Aircraft should fly, and although those in storage at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) typically do not, they do form an aircraft parts inventory, stored ‘on the wing” if you will, rather than on the shelves of a warehouse. Storage on the wing reduces costs and provides a quick, visual reference as to where parts are located. What most people don’t know is that AMARG is so much more than a storage site for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, or a salvage station for parts to keep others flying.
As told by Jim Dunn and Nicholas A. Veronico in their book AMARG: Americas Strategic Military Aircraft Reserve, the Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) is the parent of all three of the Air Force’s depots (Ogden Air Logistics Complex, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, and Warner-Robins Air Logistics Complex) as well as two supply chain wings and three air base wings under Air Force Materiel Command. AMARG is a subordinate organization to the Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill AFB, Utah, and a partner tenant of Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona.
Davis-Monthan AFB encompasses more than 10,000 acres, of which AMARG occupies 2,600 acres, or a little more than one-quarter of the real estate. The region’s hard-packed caliche soil, its temperate climate, minimal annual rainfall, and low humidity provide the perfect conditions for storing aircraft. Here atmospheric-induced corrosion is only a small concern as opposed to aircraft stored in a salt-air environment. These attributes have earned AMARG the title of “America’s National-level Airpower Reservoir.”
The second largest air force in the world
Through the years, as AMARG’s capabilities have grown, so has the facility’s maintenance space with the addition of a 76,746sq ft high-bay hangar in 2015, and fighter-sized de-paint and paint facilities in 2022. Currently, AMARG has 540,000sq ft of industrial workspace available for myriad tasks. What one does not see are giant warehouses for store parts. Storage on the wing moderates overhead costs by reducing warehouse facility requirements, maintenance, and utility costs. This also allows for a possible surge in storage and reclamation operations, making all parts and structural components available for reclamation.
AMARG’s aircraft inventory ebbs and flows from year to year. Fiscal Year (FY) 1973 saw an all- time high of 6,080 aircraft in storage. AMARG currently stores approximately 3,200 aircraft, 5,900 engines of various models, and more than 340,000 pieces of aircraft production tooling. Incredibly its 3,200 aircraft would make of the 309 AMARG the second largest air force in the world (with USAF ranking at number one).
These assets are owned by more than 80 “customer” organizations from the US DoD (Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy), the Department of Homeland Security (USCG, Customs and Border Protection), NASA, the Department of Agriculture (US Forest Service), the Smithsonian Institute, the National Science Foundation, and a number of Allied governments.
AMARG’s mission
AMARG’s mission encompasses five areas, from its well-known storage, reclamation, aircraft disposal, and regeneration activities to aircraft modification and overflow depot-level maintenance. In order to accomplish its mission, AMARG comprises the 309th Support Squadron (SPTS), the 576th Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Squadron (AMRS), and the 577th Commodities and Reclamation Squadron (CMRS).
The 309th Support Squadron provides maintenance and mission support, while the 576th AMRS is the facility’s flight line squadron that performs the storage induction of arriving aircraft and staffs the various depot-level maintenance activities. The 577th CMRS is responsible for parts reclamation from stored aircraft and this unit’s technicians prepare all aircraft departing by road, This is also the unit that surgically cuts stored strategic aircraft, such as the B-52 fleet, to comply with the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START.
AMARG: Americas Strategic Military Aircraft Reserve is published by Key Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
