Free Republic

Author's note: See the update at the bottom of this story that describes changes made to our original report. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The pilot of a U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II has reportedly intercepted multiple Houthi drones during the militants’ sustained anti-shipping campaign that’s been focused on the Red Sea, along with barrages of drones sent to strike Israel. It isn't clear how many, if any, of the drones Harriers have shot down. Until now, we had heard accounts of U.S. and allied warships bringing down Houthi drones and missiles, as well as aerial kills by U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets...

It was a madcap barn-storming adventure – designed to commemorate one of the greatest aviation feats of derring-do - that not only captured the heart and imagination of a nation but created headlines around the world at the end of the Swinging Sixties. It even played a pivotal role in Britain's vital export drive –by helping sell the then revolutionary Harrier jump jet to the Americans. Exactly fifty years ago in May 1969 the Daily Mail launched 'The Great Transatlantic Air Race' to commemorate the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic – that took place fifty years before that -...

Despite having the highest accident rate of any U.S. Marine Corps fixed-wing aircraft, the Marines will keep the AV-8B Harrier around longer than planned. The reason is simple: Marine F/A-18 Hornets are in far worse shape and need to be replaced sooner. In 2014, the Marines were committed to retiring the Harrier earlier than planned and extending the Hornet fleet, however, after an intensive review of the Harrier fleet and the rapid aging of Marine Hornets, the Harrier will be around longer than it was expected to be a few years ago. Quirky and complicated, the Harrier has had a...

Arun Prakash (left) and Shikker Raj Pillai Naval Air Station INS Hansa, Goa, May 11: Blessed are lives like Captain Shikku Raj Pillai's: fighter pilot, naval officer, a hero here this morning, the last on planet earth to land the Sea Harrier. Soon, this afternoon, he would formally hand over command of his squadron, the INAS 300 "White Tigers", to Captain Harshveer Singh. Harshveer is younger and flies the much younger MiG29K. Pillai is moving from Goa to New Delhi. He is delighted to be the hero today but his sunburnt features pale in contemplating the immediate future. As of...

BAE Systems’ laser-guided rocket has been rushed into combat on the AV-8B Harrier, seven months after it was requested by the top brass of the US Marine Corps. The semi-active-laser-seeking 70mm (2.75in) rocket, enabled by BAE’s mid-body guidance and control section, is already deployed on US Navy and Marine Corps attack helicopters and was recently acquired by the Army for the AH-64 Apache gunship, but it will soon become a standard tool on the fixed-wing AV-8B jump jet. US Naval Air Systems Command is delivering 80 units initially to Marine Attack Squadron-223 (VMA-223), which is currently deployed to an undisclosed...

NEW DELHI: They were always a sight to behold, a force to reckon with. Fighters landing vertically, akin to helicopters, with ear-splitting roars on a moving airfield despite being fixed-wing. It left even the usually phlegmatic Manmohan Singh slightly nonplussed during the "PM's day at sea" in 2006. Similar was the case of other politicians, before and after him, like A B Vajpayee and L K Advani. But the old must give way to the new. Ahead of the 56-year-old aircraft carrier INS Viraat's retirement later this year, the Navy has bid adieu to its eyeball-grabbing Sea Harrier "jump jets"...

Instead of retiring, former test pilot and real estate mogul Art Nalls imported, restored, certified and flew the world’s only private Harrier jump jet. Now he’s a man with a mission, adding to his fleet, he wants to preserve the Harrier’s legacy for decades to come. His amazing story is told in this awesome mini documentary from AARP studios: Art’s Harrier is an ex-Royal Navy Sea Harrier FA2. The Sea Harrier gained fame during the Falklands War, and continued to serve throughout the 1980s and 1990s, when it received the Blue Vixen radar and the ability to fire the AIM-120...

The United Kingdom’s 2010 Strategic Defense and Security Review—a budget drill, really—imposed devastating cuts to what had been one of the world’s best militaries. The British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy each had to give up weapons and manpower in the interest of saving money. But arguably the most damaging reductions fell on the navy, which had to surrender both of its remaining Invincible-class light aircraft carriers years earlier than previously planned. And the Harrier jump jets that flew from the flattops went, too—leaving the navy without carrier-launched fighters for the first time since a plane took off...

The U.S. Marine Corps will phase out the Boeing AV-8B Harrier II jump jet by 2025 — about five years earlier than planned — and will instead extend the life of its fleet of aging Boeing F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters, according to the service’s recently released 2015 aviation plan. In previous years, the service had said it would replace its increasingly older fleet of original model Boeing F/A-18A – D Hornet strike fighters before retiring the Harriers before replacing both fighters with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Now, the Harrier will be retired in 2025...

“For a while I flew by the ship, I approached at 300 feet so he could see my landing gear and see what was going on,” Mahoney said. “At this point it was time to figure out, how do I get the jet back on the deck safely with only three landing gear?” The plan was to use a stool on the deck to stabilize the nose of the jet while Mahoney made a vertical landing using only the lights on the ship and assistance via radio from “Paddles.” “The ship had this amazing invention, called a stool, that was...

About 1,300 people were evacuated after a Marine jet carrying ammunitions crashed in a Yuma, Arizona neighborhood Wednesday. The pilot ejected safely. A Marine spokesperson said the jet was trying to land when it crashed in the backyard of a home about a mile from Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma. Authorities say there have been no reports of injuries related to the crash. A Marine spokesperson said the AV-8B Harrier was carrying four 500-pound bombs and 300 rounds of 20-milimeter ammunitions. A one-mile area around the crash site was evacuated so a military explosives disposal team could safely retrieve the ordnance....

One of the biggest concerns of the Spanish navy about its future -- the 'expiration' of the Harrier fighters and their complicated succession – has now been solved by a 70-million euro plan to extend their service life beyond 2025. Their intended replacement, the American F-35B, must wait "until it becomes financially accessible" for Spain. Spain has secured the future of its naval air wing, after years of uncertainty about what vertical takeoff fighters it would operate after 2020. After the loss of the aircraft carrier 'Principe de Asturias’ -- an ideal platform for STOVL fighters, but which has now...

An AV-8B Harrier II sits on the flight deck aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4), the flagship for the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, deployed in the Arabian Sea. Oct 2013.U.S. Navy photo by Specialist 3rd Class J. Michael Schwartz.

A tale of two Harriers: How Italy held on to carrier strike 18 September 2012 Defence blogger Gabriele Molinelli explores the different approaches to defence that left financially troubled Italy with carrier strike capability while the UK faces nearly a decade without On 26 October 2011, the Italian Navy's 'Embarked Aircraft Group', GRUPAER, celebrated its first 20 years. The pilots of the squadron could proudly celebrate in front of their Harriers, having operated to great effect over Libya from the aircraft carrier Garibaldi. They flew 33 per cent of Italy's war sorties, and 53 per cent of the land attack...

Camp Bastion attack could be U.S. Marine Corps Harrier fleet’s ground zero September 22, 2012 As already explained, the recent Taliban attack on Camp Bastion, that cost the U.S. the worst air loss to enemy fire in one day since the Vietnam War, almost wiped out the entire U.S. Marine Harrier force in Afghanistan: besides killing two Marines, including the Commanding Officer of Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 211, six AV-8B+ aircraft were destroyed and two more severly injured. Since the VMA-211 “Avengers” had deployed to Afghanistan with 10 airframes, only two Harriers survived the insurgent attack in one of the...

Marine Attack Squadron loses eight Harrier jets in worst U.S. air loss in one day since the Vietnam War On Friday Sept. 14, at around 10.15 p.m. local time, a force of Taliban gunmen attacked Camp Bastion, in Helmand Province, the main strategic base in southwestern Afghanistan.About 15 insurgents (19 according to some reports), wearing U.S. Army uniforms, organized into three teams, breached the perimeter fence and launched an assault on the airfield, that includes the U.S. Camp Leatherneck and the UK’s Camp Bastion, where British royal Prince Harry, an AH-64 Apache pilot (initially believed to be the main target...

Marine aviator of the year recalls historic mission in Libya 4/24/2012 By Cpl. Brian Adam Jones, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. — The magnitude of the moment came to him over the radio, in a hoarse whisper. Maj. J. Eric Grunke sat in the cockpit of an AV-8B Harrier at just past midnight March 22, 2011, thousands of feet above the Mediterranean Sea, and speeding toward the Libyan coastline. Grunke was serving as a Harrier pilot assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit on the third day of Operation Odyssey Dawn, an...

A Harrier is attended by ground crew at an airbase in southern Italy in 1999, when the planes were involved in Nato attacks in the former Yugoslavia The Royal Navy's entire fleet of Harrier jump jets, the British plane controversially scrapped in last year's defence review, has been saved – by the US military. All 74 of the planes, which were permanently grounded by the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), are to fly again for the US marines, in a deal that is expected to be closed within a week. The Ministry of Defence said negotiations were continuing but...

U.S. Marine Corps Negotiates Buying Decommissioned British Harriers The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have agreed to buy Britain’s entire decommissioned fleet of 74 Harrier GR-9 and 9A Vertical/Short take off and Landing (V/STOL) fighter jets – a move expected to help the Corps operate Harrier jump jets into the mid-2020s and possibly replace aging two-seat F-18D Hornet strike fighters currently used for night attacks, Navy Times reports. A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defence confirmed the Disposal Services Agency was in talks with the U.S. Navy for the sale of the Harriers, their engines and spare parts. The...

Tomcat pilots test the newest Harrier system Story by Lance Cpl. Laura Cardoso Marine Attack Squadron 311 completed testing on the next generation of the AV-8B Harrier operating system May 12, 2011. Harrier 6.0, a software, hardware and weapons upgrade, specifically for the harrier, was designed to improve the efficiency of the aircraft. "We are always striving for improvements," said Maj. William Maples, Naval Air Weapons Station in China Lake, Calif., harrier branch head. "We work towards more capability and better support for the guys on the ground. It's the nature of the business. We are always trying to improve...