U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II aircraft from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit were documented at Al Dhafra Air Base in April 2019 while supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel and Afghan National Army operations through the U.S. coalition.
| Claim | Sources |
|---|---|
| 22nd MEU AV-8B Harrier II aircraft were operating from Al Dhafra in April 2019 while supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel. | |
| The supported side is United States, NATO, and Afghan government forces. | Sources: ACC 22nd MEU at ADAB, Lead IG Operation Freedom's Sentinel April-June 2021 |
| The role was expeditionary air-to-ground support, including close-air-support capability for ground-force requests. | Sources: ACC 22nd MEU at ADAB, NAVAIR AV-8B Harrier |
Timeline
Official imagery showed a 22nd MEU AV-8B Harrier II landing at Al Dhafra and maintainers de-arming ordnance from another Harrier while the Marine detachment continued support to Operation Freedom's Sentinel.
Air Combat Command reported that the 22nd MEU had offloaded AV-8B Harrier operations to Al Dhafra during USS Kearsarge maintenance and was supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel and Afghan National Army operations through the U.S. coalition.
Sources: ACC 22nd MEU at ADAB
U.S. Air Force reporting from April 2019 documented AV-8B Harrier II aircraft assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit operating from Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, while USS Kearsarge was in scheduled mid-deployment maintenance. The article identified the aircraft's pilots as supporting Operation Freedom's Sentinel, which it described as support to the Afghan National Army through the U.S. coalition in Afghanistan.
Associated official imagery from April 16, 2019 showed 22nd MEU maintainers de-arming ordnance from an AV-8B Harrier II after landing at Al Dhafra and stated that the Marines had relocated to continue support to Operation Freedom's Sentinel and other operations.
On April 16, 2019, official imagery recorded AV-8B Harrier II aircraft and 22nd MEU maintainers at Al Dhafra after mission activity. On April 20, 2019, Air Combat Command published the accompanying article describing the detachment's temporary land-based operations, daily mission rhythm, and Operation Freedom's Sentinel support role.
The documented Afghanistan-war use was expeditionary rather than permanently Afghan-based: the 22nd MEU's aviation element offloaded land-side to Al Dhafra while USS Kearsarge underwent maintenance in Bahrain. The detachment brought several Harriers, pilots, and more than 50 maintainers, preserving the aircraft's ability to support combat operations during the ship's maintenance window.
The same official article framed the Harrier's theater role around air-to-ground support. A 22nd MEU AV-8B pilot described air-to-ground operations as the aircraft's primary mission and tied its sensors, targeting pod, and weapon systems to close air support for Joint Terminal Attack Controller airstrike requests. NAVAIR's AV-8B program page lists close air support, armed reconnaissance, air interdiction, night ordnance delivery, and expeditionary basing among the aircraft's tasks, matching the kind of support described during the 2019 Operation Freedom's Sentinel deployment.
The sources do not identify a specific strike location inside Afghanistan, a named target, or a munition released by the AV-8Bs. The supported claim is that 22nd MEU AV-8B Harrier II aircraft were fielded from Al Dhafra in April 2019 to support Operation Freedom's Sentinel and Afghan government forces through the U.S.-led coalition.
Sources: ACC 22nd MEU at ADAB, NAVAIR AV-8B Harrier
