Farewell to the Harrier

[dkwookie]

Due to spending cuts in the UK the Harrier is being withdrawn from service today. Sad to see it go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkFOEE6vUds

[Gilly]

Another sad day in our recent military history. I've just watched them on the BBC leaving Cottesmore. Yet another of our brilliant designs consigned to history. Very sad to see them go.

[winny]

I logged on to post a goodbye to the harrier thread but the wookie beat me to it.. A sad day for a superb aircraft.

I wonder how much a used harrier costs these days..

[dkwookie]

Originally Posted by winny

I logged on to post a goodbye to the harrier thread but the wookie beat me to it.. A sad day for a superb aircraft.

I wonder how much a used harrier costs these days..

I was thinking about how much they cost. They will be up for sale soon they said on BBC. They will probably end up in a middle east country. I doubt Argentina will be bidding for them!

I watched that take off from Cottesmore too Gilly, very sad day.

A good article on the decision to scrap them:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11997084

[flynlion]

Doesn't this leave the Royal Navy without a fixed wing combat aircraft? Seems odd that they would retire the Harrier before the F-35 is ready, guess they plan to do it all with land based planes.

[dkwookie]

Yeah we won't have any carrier based fixed wing until 2020. If things go tits up somewhere we won't be able to respond

[Robotic Pope]

Yeah its a real shame. Its not like these planes are obsolete, the GR.9 is argueably the best close air suport aircraft in the world. The problem is that that is all it really does, todays combat aircraft need to be multirole.

This wouldn't have happened if they hadn't messed around in upgrading the old FRS1 sea harrier to FA.2 standard with the blue vixen radar. If they had instead taken the new at that time Harrier GR.5 and put the blue vixen in that they would now still have a modern Sea Harrier with all the ground attack capability of the GR.9 aswell as one of the most advanced air intercept radars on the planet, making it multirole as a fleet defender. Its abilities would be far greater than the current AV8B+ Harrier II. If we had this aircraft today I have no doubt it would not be retired.

Whoevers idea it was to update a very old original Sea Harrier design with highly advanced systems when a brand new aircraft design was right there ready to be used, in the end they are the ones at fault.

[olife]

about the french navy...