From staff reports
Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Beaufort hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for its new F-35B hangar on Thursday, July 7. MCAS Beaufort leadership was joined by state and local partners for the event.
The $79 million dollar project created the most state of the art hangar on the air station and will support the mission of Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501) as the Fleet Replacement Squadron for F-35B pilots.
The facility consists of a 42,000 square foot hangar bay with a capacity of nine F-35B’s, a 103,000 square foot administration building that is able to accommodate up to 450 Marines and civilian personnel, a Pilot Fit Facility for the fitting of pilot flight equipment, an operational support facility,
a three-story parking structure, 25 sunshades, an expansion of the visiting aircraft line, and two wide body aircraft refueling stations.
“Projects like this hangar help us as an air station to build for the future,” MCAS Beaufort Commanding Officer Col. Karl Arbogast said in a news release. “All of our plans and accomplishments for modernization to date are solely focused on better supporting our tenant units, primarily Marine Aircraft Group-31, in their mission to deploy aircraft and personnel across the globe. The bottom line is that we are innovating, we are building, and we are protecting these significant investments to ensure the sound of freedom is here to stay in the Lowcountry.”
