Two retired AV-8B Harrier II+ have made their final move, not to a storage yard, but to a classroom. On March 3-4, aircraft parts, support equipment and two Harrier wings departed Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, and were delivered to the newly stood up Center of Excellence for Corrosion and Finish (CoECF) in Chesapeake, Virginia, where they will serve as hands-on training for the next generation of naval aviation corrosion technicians. Two AV-8B aircraft were also transported to the corrosion training center March 24 and 25 to be used as hands on training for devices for students.

The delivery was the result of more than a year of coordination between the AV-8B Harrier Program Office (PMA-257), Fleet Readiness Center East (FRC East), and the CoECF, a collaboration rooted in a shared belief that retired aircraft should serve a purpose, not collect dust.

Polar King International transported the aircraft over two consecutive days, with FRC East’s Centralized Coordination Department leading ground-level logistics at Cherry Point. The shipment included not only the aircraft but stands, wing work stands, carts, and bins of AV-8B peculiar support equipment, assets that would otherwise have been disposed of, now repurposed to build workforce capability across the naval aviation enterprise.

“Corrosion is one of the biggest cost drivers in naval aviation. Building a workforce that can truly address it requires more than classroom instruction, it requires real aircraft, real challenges, and real consequences for getting it wrong. The AV-8B delivers all of that," said a Senior Corrosion Management Board Training Lead for the CoECF.

The AV-8B II+ is an ideal training platform for corrosion technicians. Its aluminum-composite construction, complex joint configurations, and history of operating in harsh expeditionary environments make it one of the most demanding airframes in the naval aviation inventory. Technicians who learn on a real Harrier airframe graduate better prepared for the full spectrum of corrosion challenges they will encounter across the fleet.

“This is exactly the kind of outcome we work toward,” said the PMA-257 Assistant Program Manager for Logistics and Museum Task Force Lead. “The Harrier gave everything it had operationally. These aircraft didn’t go to a boneyard to be forgotten, they went to work. Every technician who trains on one of these airframes carries that forward.”

“PMA-257 didn't just give us an aircraft, they gave us a complete training capability. That kind of partnership is what makes the CoECFT mission possible, and it is what will make our graduates better than anything we could have produced otherwise," said the CoECF Senior Corrosion Management Board Training Lead.

The CoECF delivery is one of several legacy milestones underway as the AV-8B approaches its final flight in June. PMA-257’s Museum Task Force has been executing a deliberate, nationwide effort to ensure that retiring Harriers are placed with purpose, at museums, training commands, and institutions where they continue to educate, inspire, and serve. In June 2025 alone, the task force coordinated the delivery of Harriers to Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver, Colorado; the Commemorative Air Force Airbase Arizona Museum in Mesa, Arizona; and MCAS Yuma, Arizona as a static display.

The program office is also coordinating the transfer of Bureau Number 165588, the “Lone Camp Bastion Survivor,” one of only two aircraft that was not totally destroyed our intent is to send it to a National Museum in the near future.

The AV-8B Harrier II+, operated by the U.S. Marine Corps as well as the Italian and Spanish navies, was the first successful Vertical Short Takeoff and Landing attack aircraft in frontline service. Designed to operate in austere environments, it supported expeditionary air operations for more than 40 years, flying close air support, armed reconnaissance, and interdiction missions from amphibious assault ships, tactical landing zones, and forward operating bases across the globe.

As the June final flight approaches, PMA-257’s message is clear: retirement is not abandonment. The Harrier never stopped serving. It just changed missions.