Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:15 am
#1641320
It was (and still is with the USMC) a highly versatile and effective aircraft, and could operate off ships of a 'through deck' design rather than just from airfields on land so why it was 'retired' I'm at a loss to understand.
Money. The Sea Harrier needed the bigger donk if it was going to be used effectively and bring back AMRAAM to the ship. The RN's money had been committed to the F35 quite some time ago, so we had to wave goodbye to the SHAR. The RAF, too, didn't have the spare cash to keep their Harrier fleet going but I suspect there was also a fair bit more politicking going on, especially when the top Crab was a Tornado man. I wonder which aircraft they chose to keep
The lack of an ILS was not a factor. Pretty obvious why it wasn't for the SHAR but the introduction of MADGE (a microwave approach system) meant that you could get all the guidance you'd get from an ILS system but you could also change the approach course.....which helps as ships generally don't want to sail in just one direction For the RAF, yes a portable TACAN was a possibility but there were other 'imaginative' ways of creating in-aircraft approaches with GPS marks or, with the AV8B II+, using the expandable radar maps to designate a touchdown point and then following the guidance to that point. It's easily possible to designate something like the arrestor cable and fly to that. There were other possibilities too. ILS was really not a snag for a battlefield aircraft.
Only a Harrier viffing could change direction so suddenly that it confused the Blindfire logic.
I think someone was pulling your leg, FMJ VIFFing really did not lead to a sudden change of direction and certainly not enough to 'leap' out of a radar beam. In a turning fight it could be used to incrementally nudge the nose round a bit and try to 'thrupenny bit' a circle. This just meant the nose moved a little closer to the circle and no sudden direction change. It was good for slowing down quickly (perhaps in concert with a loaded barrel roll) and forcing a fly through if someone was behind you......I don't know about having anyone behind you in a fight; we'll have to ask Gaznav what that's like It could be used in the vertical: going up you could VIFF and then quite quickly get your nose going down (this normally scared the carp out of both drivers) but I reckon a radar lock would have stayed put and VIFFing in the vertical nose down, while exceptionally useful for forcing guys to fly through, would have allowed your radar to stay locked even more easily.
I remember seeing a newspaper article where the Harrier was flying along with a baddie behind him, VIFFed and magically jumped vertically, while still facing the same direction and then the baddie flew underneath and the hero Harrier slotted into his six. The reality is that if you VIFFed in that scenario you'd stay at the same level and just slow down quickly. I believe a lot of these type of reports became lore and VIFFing was tantamount to the Klingon's cloaking device. The truth is that is was useful in certain regimes but it cost energy and I'm afraid caused a younger FMJ to be fed a certain untruth
The only problem I can see with the F35 is that I'm not flying it. I am, however, quite envious of those who get to operate it off such a well designed platform.
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