British Aerospace Sea Harrier

The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical landing/vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft. It is the second member of the Harrier family developed. It first entered service with the Royal Navy in April 1980 as the Sea Harrier FRS1 and became informally known as the "Shar". Unusual in an era in which most naval and land-based air superiority fighters were large and supersonic, the principal role of the subsonic Sea Harrier was to provide air defence for Royal Navy task groups centred around the aircraft carriers.

The Sea Harrier served in the Falklands War and the Balkans conflicts; on all occasions it mainly operated from aircraft carriers positioned within the conflict zone. Its usage in the Falklands War was its most high profile and important success, when it was the only fixed-wing fighter available to protect the British Task Force. The Sea Harriers shot down 20 enemy aircraft during the conflict; 2 Sea Harriers were lost to enemy ground fire. They were also used to launch ground attacks in the same manner as the Harriers operated by the Royal Air Force.

The Sea Harrier was marketed for sales abroad, but India was the only other operator after attempts to sell the aircraft to Argentina and Australia were unsuccessful. A second, updated version for the Royal Navy was made in 1993 as the Sea Harrier FA2, improving its air-to-air abilities and weapons compatibilities, along with a more powerful engine; this version was manufactured until 1998. The aircraft was withdrawn from service early by the Royal Navy in 2006, but remained in service with the Indian Navy for a further decade until its retirement in 2016.

Development

thumb|Harrier FRS.1 of 800 NAS using the ski-jump during takeoff from HMS Invincible in 1990

thumb|Harrier FA2 hovering. Bolt-on refuelling probe, top right

In the post-World War II era, the Royal Navy began contracting in size. By 1960, the last battleship, , was retired from the Navy, having been in service for less than fifteen years. In 1966 the planned CVA-01 class of large aircraft carriers was cancelled. During this time, requirements within the Royal Navy began to form for a vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) carrier-based interceptor to replace the de Havilland Sea Vixen. The first V/STOL tests on a ship began with a Hawker Siddeley P.1127 landing on in 1963.

A second concept for the future of naval aviation emerged in the early 1970s when the first of a new class of "through deck cruisers" was planned. These were very carefully and politically designated as cruisers, deliberately avoiding the term "aircraft carrier" to increase the chances of funding in a political climate hostile to expensive capital ships. The resulting carriers were considerably smaller than the CVA-01 design, but came to be widely recognised as aircraft carriers. Almost immediately upon their construction, a ski-jump was added to the end of the 170-metre deck, enabling the carriers to effectively operate a small number of V/STOL jets.

The Royal Air Force's Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR1s had entered service in April 1969. A navalized variant of the Harrier was developed by Hawker Siddeley to serve on the upcoming ships; this became the Sea Harrier. In 1975, the Royal Navy ordered 24 Sea Harrier FRS.1 (standing for 'Fighter, Reconnaissance, Strike') aircraft, By the time the prototype Sea Harrier was flown at Dunsfold on 20 August 1978, the order had been increased to 34.

In 1984, approval was given to upgrade of the fleet to FRS.2 standard (later known as FA2) following the lessons learned during the aircraft's deployment in the 1982 Falklands War. The first flight of the prototype took place in September 1988 and a contract was signed for 29 upgraded aircraft in December that year. In 1990, the Navy ordered 18 new-build FA2s at a unit cost of around £12 million, four further upgraded aircraft were ordered in 1994. The first aircraft was delivered on 2 April 1993.

Design

thumb|Sea Harrier FA2 ZA195 (upgrade) vector thrust nozzle – distinguishing feature of the jump jet

thumb|alt=Nozzle locations|Locations of the four [[nozzles at the sides of the Pegasus engine.]]

The Sea Harrier is a subsonic aircraft designed for strike, reconnaissance and fighter roles. It features a single Rolls-Royce Pegasus turbofan engine with two intakes and four vectorable nozzles. The use of the ski jump allowed the aircraft to take off from a short flight deck with a heavier payload than would otherwise be possible, although it can also take off like a conventional loaded fighter without thrust vectoring from a normal airport runway.

The Sea Harrier was largely based on the Harrier GR3, but was modified to have a raised cockpit with a "bubble" canopy for greater visibility and an extended forward fuselage to accommodate the Ferranti Blue Fox radar. After the Falklands War, the Sea Harrier was fitted with the Sea Eagle anti-ship missile.

The Blue Fox radar was seen by some critics as having comparatively low performance for what was available at the time of procurement. The Blue Vixen formed the basis of the Eurofighter Typhoon's CAPTOR radar. The Sea Harrier FA2 carried the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile, the first UK aircraft with this capability. An upgraded model of the Pegasus engine, the Pegasus Mk 106, was used in the Sea Harrier FA2. In response to the threat of radar-based anti-aircraft weapons electronic countermeasures were added. The utility of the vertical landing capability of the Sea Harrier was demonstrated in an incident on 6 June 1983, when Sub Lieutenant Ian Watson lost contact with the aircraft carrier and had to land Sea Harrier ZA176 on the foredeck of the Spanish cargo ship Alraigo (The Alraigo incident).

In 1998, the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency test-fitted an FA2 with AVPRO UK Ltd's Exint pods, small underwing compartments intended to be used for deployment of special forces.

In 2005, a Sea Harrier was modified with an 'Autoland' system to allow the fighter to perform a safe vertical landing without any pilot interaction. Despite the pitching of a ship posing a natural problem, the system was designed to be aware of such data, and successfully performed a landing at sea in May 2005.

Operational history

Royal Navy

Entry into service

The first three Sea Harriers were a development batch and were used for clearance trials. The Sea Harriers performed the primary air defence role with a secondary role of ground attack; the RAF Harrier GR3 provided the main ground attack force. A total of 28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR3s were deployed in the theatre. The Sea Harrier squadrons shot down 20 Argentine aircraft in air-to-air combat with no air-to-air losses, although two Sea Harriers were lost to ground fire and four to accidents. Out of the total Argentine air losses, 28% were shot down by Harriers. another being Lieutenant Stephen Thomas shooting down 2 Argentine Air Force Mirage V "Daggers" with Sidewinder missiles on one mission on May 21, 1982.

Both sides' aircraft were operating in adverse conditions. Argentine aircraft were forced to operate from the mainland because airfields on the Falklands were only suited for propeller-driven aircraft. The bombing of Port Stanley airport by a British Vulcan bomber was also a consideration in the Argentinians' decision to operate them from afar. As most Argentine aircraft lacked in-flight refuelling capability, they were forced to operate at the limit of their range. The result was that an Argentine aircraft only had five minutes over the islands to search for and attack an objective, while a Sea Harrier could stay near to 30 minutes waiting in the Argentine approach corridors and provide Combat Air Patrol coverage for up to an hour. Nonetheless, the lack of AEW&C cover resulted in air superiority as opposed to air supremacy; the Sea Harriers could not prevent Argentine attacks during day or night nor could they completely stop the daily C-130 Hercules transports' night flights to the islands.

Two main factors contributed to the failure of Argentinian fighter pilots to shoot down a Sea Harrier. Firstly, although the Mirage III and Dagger jets were faster, the Sea Harrier was considerably more manoeuvrable. Secondly, the Harrier employed the latest AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles and the Blue Fox radar. Two other hypotheses about the Argentines' lack of success have been disproven. Firstly, contrary to contemporary reports, the manoeuvre was regarded within the FAA as a tactic to be used only in extreme emergency, that would likely only be effective against opponents with little knowledge of the Harrier's capabilities. Secondly, contrary to contemporary reports, Argentinian pilots seldom released air-to-air missiles and other weapons outside of their effective range and other operating parameters. This belief may have resulted from British observers witnessing Mirages/Daggers dropping external fuel tanks, to improve their manoeuvrability.

During the conflict, the principal threats to Harrier aircraft were assessed as surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), anti-aircraft artillery, and small arms fire, with four Harrier GR.3s and six Sea Harriers lost.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Aircraft type & serial

! Pilot

! Date

! Location

! Cause / Weapon

| Sea Harrier XZ450 || Lt Nick Taylor || 4 May 1982 || Goose Green area || Shot down by 35mm Oerlikon AA fire

| Sea Harrier ZA174 || Lt Cdr Mike Broadwater || 29 May 1982 || HMS flight deck || Slid off deck in bad weather (accident) On 16 April 1994, a Sea Harrier of the 801 Naval Air Squadron, operating from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, was brought down by an Igla-1 surface-to-air missile fired by the Army of Republika Srpska while attempting to bomb two Bosnian Serb tanks besieging Gorazde. The pilot, Lieutenant Nick Richardson, ejected and landed in territory controlled by friendly Bosniak forces.

It was used again in the 1999 NATO campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Operation Allied Force, where Sea Harriers operating from Invincible frequently patrolled the airspace to keep Yugoslavian MiGs on the ground. They were also deployed on board Illustrious in 2000 as part of Operation Palliser, the British intervention in Sierra Leone.

Retirement

thumb|A Sea Harrier FA2 on display at the [[National Maritime Museum in May 2006]]

The UK is procuring the STOVL F-35B to be operated from the Royal Navy's s.

The Sea Harrier was withdrawn from service in 2006 and the last remaining aircraft from 801 Naval Air Squadron were decommissioned on 29 March 2006. The MoD argued that significant expenditure would be required to upgrade the fleet for only six years of service to meet the F-35s then planned in-service date.

Both versions of Harrier experienced reduced engine performance (Pegasus Mk 106 in FA2 and Mk 105 in GR7) in the higher ambient temperatures of the Middle East, which restricted the weight of payload that the Harrier could return to the carrier in 'vertical' recoveries.

The Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm would continue to share the other component of Joint Force Harrier. Harrier GR7 and the upgraded Harrier GR9 were transferred to Royal Navy squadrons in 2006, but were retired in 2010 due to budget cuts.

Although withdrawn from active Royal Navy service, Sea Harriers are used to train naval aircraft handlers at the Royal Navy School of Flight Deck Operations.

Indian Navy

thumb|A pair of Indian Sea Harriers fly alongside an [[F/A-18F Super Hornet of the U.S. Navy during Malabar 2007.|alt=Two similar grey jet aircraft with high-mounted wing flying in formation with another red-tail fighter, which is leading and is furthest from photo. The leading jet is carrying an external fuel tank under fuselage.]]

thumb|Indian Sea Harrier on takeoff

In 1977, the Indian government approved plans to acquire the Sea Harrier for the Indian Navy. In November 1979, India placed its first order for six Sea Harrier FRS Mk 51 fighters and two T Mk 60 Trainers; the first three Sea Harriers arrived at Dabolim Airport on 16 December 1983, and were inducted the same year. eventually a total of 30 Harriers were procured, 25 for operational use and the remainder five as dual-seat trainer aircraft. Until the 1990s, significant portions of pilot training was carried out in Britain due to limited aircraft availability. The Sea Harrier allowed several modern missiles to be introduced into naval operations, such as the Sea Eagle anti-ship missile, and the Matra Magic air-to-air missile. Other ordnance has included 68 mm rockets, runway-denial bombs, cluster bombs, and podded 30 mm cannons. Since the beginning of operational service in the Indian Navy, seven pilots have died in 17 crashes involving the Sea Harrier, usually during routine sorties.

thumb|left|The Indian aircraft carrier in the early 1980s carrying Sea Harriers, [[Hawker Sea Hawk|Sea Hawks, Alouette and Sea King helicopters, and Alizé ASW aircraft]]

In 2006, the Indian Navy expressed interest in acquiring up to eight of the Royal Navy's recently retired Sea Harrier FA2s in order to maintain their operational Sea Harrier fleet. Neither the Sea Harrier FA2's Blue Vixen radar, the radar warning receiver or AMRAAM capability would have been included; certain US software would also be uninstalled prior to shipment.

In 2006, the Indian Navy started upgrading up to 15 Sea Harriers, installing the Elta EL/M-2032 radar and the Rafael Derby medium-range air-to-air BVR missile. This enabled the Sea Harrier to remain in Indian service beyond 2012. By 2009, crashes had reduced India's fleet to 12 (from original 30).

India purchased the deactivated Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov in 2004. After refurbishment and trials, the ship was formally inducted into the Indian Navy as INS Vikramaditya in June 2014. Sea Harriers operated from INS Viraat for the last time on 6 March 2016.

thumb|Indian Naval Sea-harriers flying in formation with successor Mig-29K aircraft

On 11 May 2016, a ceremony was held at INS Hansa, Dabolim, Goa to commemorate the phasing out of Sea Harriers from INAS 300 "White Tigers" and their replacement by the MiG-29K/KUB fighters. Aircraft of both types performed an air display at the ceremony, marking the final flight of the Sea Harriers after 33 years of service in the Indian Navy. The Indian Navy operates MiG-29K/KUB STOBAR fighters from Vikramaditya and later from the new INS Vikrant.

Variants

thumb|Indian Naval Harriers landing on INS Viraat

;Sea Harrier FRS.1

: 57 FRS1s were delivered between 1978 and 1988; most survivors converted to Sea Harrier FA2 specifications from 1988. These aircraft were later upgraded with the Elta EL/M-2032 radar and the Rafael Derby BVRAAM missiles.

;Sea Harrier FA2

: Upgrade of FRS1 fleet in 1988, featuring the Blue Vixen pulse-doppler radar and the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. The following is list of those not used by the military for training.

India

;On display

thumb|Sea Harrier FRS 51 (IN-621) on display at the [[Naval Aviation Museum (Goa)|Naval Aviation Museum in Goa, India]]

Sea Harrier FRS 51 (IN-621) at the Naval Aviation Museum in Goa, India
Sea Harrier T Mk.60 (IN-654) at the Rashtriya Indian Military College in Dehradun, India.
Sea Harrier FRS 51 (IN-606) at the Sea Harrier Museum in Visakhapatnam, India.
Sea Harrier FRS 51 (IN-617) at Bandstand Promenade, Bandra in Mumbai, India.

United Kingdom

;In use

The Royal Navy School of Flight Deck Operations still uses Harriers to train Aircraft Handlers on the dummy deck at RNAS Culdrose.
Sea Harrier FRS.1 XZ493 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, Somerset
Sea Harrier FA.2 XZ494 at the Castle Farm Camping and Caravanning, Wedmore, Somerset
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZA175 at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, Cambridgeshire.
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZA176 at the Newark Air Museum, Newark, Nottinghamshire
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZD607 at the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency, Bicester, Oxfordshire
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZD613 on the roof of a building at the Cross Green Industrial Estate, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZE691 at Woodford Park Industrial Estate, Winsford, Cheshire
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZE694 at the Midland Air Museum, Coventry, Warwickshire
Sea Harrier FA.2 XZ459 at Tangmere Military Aviation Museum in West Sussex, arrived in 2020

;Stored or under restoration

Sea Harrier FA.2 ZH803, formerly at SFDO at RNAS Culdrose, is owned by FLY HARRIER Ltd. and gained civil registration with the CAA on 7 August 2019 as G-RNFA. As of July 2020, it is listed as being at St Athan Airport in Wales.
Sea Harrier FA.2 XZ497 with a private collection at Charlwood, Surrey
Sea Harrier FA.2 XZ499 with the Fleet Air Arm Museum storage facility Cobham Hall, Yeovilton
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZD582 with a private collection at Aynho, Northamptonshire
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZD612 with a private collection at Topsham, Devon
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZD614 with a private collection Walcott, Lincolnshire
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZE697 at the former RAF Binbrook, Lincolnshire (as of 2016)
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZE698 with a private collection at Charlwood, Surrey to Jet Art Aviation, who restored the aircraft to be taxi- and ground-run capable.
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZH799 with a private collection at Ballarat, Australia.
Sea Harrier FA.2 ZH806 and ZH812 with a dealer near Ipswich, Suffolk

United States

thumb|Sea Harrier FA.2 ZH810 at the [[Pima Air & Space Museum in 2026]]

;Airworthy

Sea Harrier FA2 registered N94422 (formerly Royal Navy serial number XZ439) Nalls Aviation, St Mary's County, Maryland. The former Royal Navy Sea Harrier FA2 was purchased in 2006 by Art Nalls, who spent the next two years restoring it to flying condition. In December 2007, it was damaged in a hard landing, while undergoing testing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and had to be repaired. The aircraft made its first public appearance at an air show in Culpeper, Virginia, in October 2008. The aircraft is the only privately owned, civilian-flown Harrier in the world.

;On display

Sea Harrier FA.2 ZH810 at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona

Specifications (Sea Harrier FA.2)

thumb|Sea Harrier FRS51. of the Indian Navy taking off from [[INS Viraat|INS Viraat|alt=Jet aircraft on deck of aircraft carrier. Its refuelling receptacle is extended near the pilot's canopy]]

Notable appearances in media

The Harrier's unique characteristics have led to it being featured a number of films and video games.

References

Notes

Bibliography

Chant, Chris. Air War in the Falklands 1982 (Osprey Combat Aircraft #28). Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2001. .

;Further reading

External links

British Aerospace Sea Harrier
Sea Harrier Still Alive and Kicking (archive article)
List of surviving Sea Harriers: Demobbed – Out of Service British Military Aircraft