The United States military essentially operates four powerful air forces – the United States Air Force, the Marine Corps Aviation, the Navy’s aviation wing, and US Army Aviation (which mostly operates helicopters). The Marines have their aviation arm optimized for assault and amphibious operations. The service operates both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft (with the tiltrotor CV-22 Ospreys being something in between those two categories). Here are five fixed-wing aircraft operated by the US Marines.
1 AV-8B Harrier II
The Marines have around 87 Harriers
Role: Ground attack aircraft Entered service: 1981 Major contractors: BAE Systems and Boeing
The V/STOL AV-8B Harrier II (closely related to the famous British Harrier jump jet of the Falklands War) remains in service with the Marine Corps. However, these are aging (the British retired them in 2010), and they are being replaced by the much more capable STOVL F-35B Lightning II. The F-35B outclasses the Harrier in almost every way – it has a much more advanced lift system, greater payload, longer ranges, and everything else that comes with the world’s most advanced stealth fighter.
Photo: BlueBarronPhoto l Shutterstock
The Harriers are still being used in combat (some saw action in the Red Sea shooting down Houthi drones in 2024). However, they are expected to retire in the coming years (perhaps 2026), and the service has finished training the last personnel to fly and maintain them. The Italian Navy is also progressively retiring its fleet of Harriers (and replacing them with F-35Bs). This will leave the Spanish Navy has the final operator of the Harrier (and it hasn’t said when it plans to retire them).
Related The Alraigo Incident: When A Lost British Harrier Landed On A Cargo Ship Running low on fuel, a Royal Navy Sea Harrier landed on a cargo ship bound for the Canary Islands.
2 F/A-18 Hornet
The Marines have around 138 Hornets
Role: Multirole fighter Entered service: 1983 Major contractors: Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman
The Marines also operate around 138 older F/A-18A/C/D Hornets (the Navy has largely replaced its Hornets with Super Hornets). These are being replaced by the new F-35B, which also offers a major leap in capabilities over these older jets. The Hornet was used as the baseline to develop the Navy’s larger, more versatile Super Hornet.
Photo: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying
The F/A-18 Hornet is able to perform a variety of roles including fleet air defense, SEAD (suppression of enemy air defense), air interdiction, close air support, fighter escort, and more. Until the F-35B is fielded in greater numbers, the Hornet family remains
5 Fixed-Wing Aircraft Operated By The US Marines
