I wonder if there are any details available on which Navy and Marine
squadrons will be involved in the TACAIR integration plan.

As you probably know, the frame of the plan is to augment all 10
active Navy CVWs with a single VMFA each (increasing the number of
such squadrons in CVWs from 4 now to 10 until the end of the decade).
As a result 3 of the Navy's VFA would join the UDP cycle, and further
3 would be deactivated.

According to the articles in "Naval Aviation News" and "Air Forces
Monthly" (or "Combat Aircraft" it was?) the schedule for the PACFLT is
as follows:

VMFA-232 goes to CVW-2 (replacing VMFA-323; now VFA-82 is assigned
instead),
VMFA-323 - to CVW-9 (replacing VMFA-314),
VMFA-314 - to CVW-11.

As far as I know VFA-97 is the first land-based Navy squadron, joining
UDP cycle in Sep 2004. The first Navy squadron to be deactivated
(FY2006) is VFA-82. There is no word about VMFA-212 (which left
Iwakuni), or Marine squadrons for CVW-5 or CVW-14.

There is no such info about Atlantic Fleet, beside the fact VMFA-115
deployed again with CVW-3.

Because the Marines have only 8 active VMFAs, for the 9th and 10th
squadron various options are considered, among them:
- redesignating active VMFA(AW) units to VMFA, switching their
F/A-18Ds to Reserve Squadrons, and getting F/A-18A+ instead,
- putting some Marine F/A-18D squadrons aboard Navy carriers,
- creating "composite" (F/A-18A+/D or F/A-18C/D?) squadrons.
So far all this seems a bit weird idea to me;-)

Do you know anything more about the details? Or is it too soon? The
squadrons involved in the plan, as I learnt on the NWDC page, were to
be choosen "ASAP".

Best regards,

Jacek Zemlo