There was a case of a Sea Harrier in the Falklands landing on a container ship in 10/10 fog. No other plane could do this.
The Sea Harriers rocked up 20 air-to-air kills, without loss to the enemy air force (although two were lost to ground fire). And although the beloved “SHAR” did have in its locker the useful tactic of being able to come to a complete halt in the air and letting the bandit fly past, not one of the 20 victories came in this manner. It was straight dogfighting.
I think the SHARs were pivotal in retaking the Falklands, and I think the UK government were very short-sighted to scrap them before even a single F35B had arrived to replace them. I believe the first one has only just landed in the UK this week.
There was the design for a Mach 2 Harrier, the P1154, which proved competitive with even the formidable F4 Phantom. However, the then Labour government of Harold Wilson had got into financial problems (surprise, surprise), needed the US to OK an IMF loan.
As a result of US pressure, the government cancelled the Blue Streak ICBM (which could have powered a UK manned space programme) in favour of the American Polaris, the Blue Steel stand-off nuke in favour of the American Skybolt (which the American government cancelled), the outstanding TSR2 multi-role combat aircraft in favour of the American F111 (which had multiple project delays and problems and was never delivered to the RAF) … and the P1154, in favour of the very non-VTOL F4 with UK-designed RR Spey engines.
Wilson got his loan… and the British aerospace industry was massacred as a result.
Read other related questions on Quora:
- Why did the UK and the USA give up the further development of the British Aerospace Harrier-II?
- During the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) conflict, how was the Argentinian Airforce able to inflict so much damage on the British fleet with the presence of the British sea harrier force?
- Is the story behind the incorrect coriolis component correction applied by the British during the Falkland war in WW I true?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2ffViiK
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