The Marine Corps officially deactivated two Hawaii helicopter units this week as part of a major restructuring that will mean fewer helicopters and quieter skies over Oahu.

Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 (HMH-463) was officially deactivated Thursday evening and Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367 (HMLA-367) was deactivated Friday morning at ceremonies held at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay.

The Marine Corps is revamping its entire service over the next decade through an initiative called Force Design 2030.

The plan is geared toward returning the Marines to their roots as a naval branch focused on coastal and island operations, particularly in the Western Pacific as tensions simmer in the South China Sea — a critical waterway through which over a third of all global trade travels.

The new design calls for getting rid of all of the serv­ice’s tanks and putting a greater emphasis on missiles and drones and looking to a leaner, agile force. Force Design 2030 also calls for a reorganization of the service’s air assets, with a roughly 28% reduction in aircraft in the Marine Corp’s overall inventory.

In Hawaii the Marines are sending all of their traditional helicopters elsewhere. In 2021 they began decommissioning some and planning to relocate others to new homes with other Marine units on the mainland and in Asia.

Force Design 2030 has proved divisive among both active-duty and retired Marines.

On Friday the online military news outlet Task & Purpose published an opinion piece by retired Marine Gen. Terry Dake in which he argued that “ongoing divestitures of assets, in particular Marine aviation assets, to focus on a single specific threat, make the reality of global deployment when required by any of the Combatant Commanders highly problematic.”

But the Marines aren’t giving up on aircraft in Hawaii. Commanders are looking to the service’s V-22 Ospreys to play a central role in operations around the Pacific. The Osprey is a “tilt-rotor” aircraft that has the characteristics of both helicopters and airplanes and is able to fly long distances. In 2017 Marine V-22s successfully completed their first trans- Pacific flight between Hawaii and Australia.

In place of the helicopters that are leaving, the Marine Corps hopes to bring in more KC-130J tanker planes to refuel the Ospreys midflight as they haul troops around the region for training and operations. It’s also looking at bringing in stealthy new Reaper MQ-9A drones at its Hawaii base that it hopes to use for surveillance missions around the Pacific in place of the smaller RC-21 Blackjack drones at the base now.

“It’s about force design, but also routine modernization for the (drone) squadron upgrade to a new platform,” said Marine spokesman Capt. Jordan Fox. “Those are both proposed. There’s a home- basing environmental assessment going on right now that started in January.”

HMLA-367, known in the Marine Corps by the call sign “Scarface,” was first activated as a Marine observation squadron on Dec. 1, 1943, at Quantico, Va., providing support as spotters for artillery during island- hopping campaigns in the Pacific during World War II. It participated in the occupation of North China from October 1945 to June 1947 before eventually being deactivated in 1949.

It was reactivated during the Vietnam War, where it first adopted its infamous call sign. The squadron supported ground operations in Vietnam and top secret reconnaissance missions in neighboring Laos, and eventually assisted in the evacuation of South Vietnam after the Communist victory in 1975. The unit later served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Hawaii the squadron flew AH-1Z Vipers and UH-1Y Venom, both upgraded versions of Bell helicopters that made their debut in the Vietnam War. The Viper is the next evolution of the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter, while the Venom is the modern version of the iconic Huey, which featured prominently in films like “Apocalypse Now.”

The Vipers replaced the AH-1W Super Cobras that had been used for more than three decades in Hawaii. A Marine Corps news release from 2017, when Kaneohe received its first Vipers, proudly proclaimed that “the arrival of the fourth generation attack helicopters enhances the capabilities and power projection” of forces in Hawaii. The transition was only completed in 2019.

At $31 million apiece the Vipers had been expected to serve many more years in Hawaii. But last spring the Marine Corps began sending some of Hawaii’s Vipers to the military aircraft boneyard at Davis- Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to prepare for the squadron’s deactivation in support of the new reorganization.

However, it’s not the end for the squadron. The Marines intend to reactivate the unit later this year at Camp Pendleton, Calif., where it will merge with the 3rd Marine Aviation Wing’s HMLA-469.

“Considering the history and lineage on Scarface’s resume, it’s entirely appropriate that we send them home,” Col. Brian T. Koch, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 24, told the squadron Friday during its deactivation ceremony.

HMH-463, known in the Marine Corps as “Pegasus,” was first activated July 20, 1944, at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., as Marine Bombing Squadron 463. Since 1971 it had called Kaneohe Bay home.

The squadron conducted operations in Vietnam, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. Most recently, the squadron returned from a nine-month rotation with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in Japan in May.

At the ceremony the HMH-463’s commanding officer, Lt. Col. Kelly Allen, told Marines that “while our time here at Pegasus may be coming to an end, the bonds, memories and achievements that we have live forever.”

In Hawaii the squadron flew CH-53E Super Stallions, the largest and oldest helicopter in the service’s inventory. The Super Stallions first entered service in 1981. The airframe is ultimately expected to continue serving as part of Force Design 2030 — Fox said the Marines are undergoing a modernization program transitioning from the CH-53E to the new CH-53K.

The deactivation of HMH-463 will send Pegasus’ 12 Hawaii Stallions to other aviation units across the Corps.

“The CH-53E has proven itself as a capable and worthy heavy-lift platform here in Hawaii, as noted in HMH-463’s lineage and history,” said Fox. “The platform is capable of conducting interisland flights and missions, but the Osprey’s speed and range make it a more suitable platform for operations across the vastness of the Pacific Theater. An MV-22 Osprey, coupled with a KC-130J, can place Marines and equipment anywhere they need to go.”