Hover and out(Sad state of India's Sea Harrier fighters)

It was past 11 on a warm Monday morning when Commander Janak Bevli’s Sea Harrier came to land on the tarmac on the naval air station at Goa’s picturesque Dabolim airport. It was not an ordinary fighter aircraft landing, Commander Bevli gently rotated the Sea Harrier’s Vertical/Short Take Off and Landing (V/STOL) thrust nozzles down towards the runway, bringing the aircraft to a gentle hover. Just then, the aircraft began yawing out of control.

In a flash the experienced pilot yanked the twin handles of the Martin Baker ejection seat between his thighs. His seat rocketed out of the cockpit into the sky.

The parachute blossomed minutes after the aircraft thudded on the concrete. Bevli escaped unscathed but his aircraft became the 17th Sea Harrier of a total fleet of 30 aircraft to crash since their induction in 1983. Seven pilots have been killed so far. Six of the ageing aircraft have crashed in the past five years, three in the past 12 months alone. The Indian Navy’s fleet of Sea Harrier now hovers at a perilously low figure of 13 aircraft—nine fighters and four twin-seat trainers—which raises serious doubts on its capability to defend its fleet at the sea.

Among the greatest threats for a carrier battle group out at the sea is from long-range maritime patrol and strike (LRMP/S) aircraft which operate far beyond the range of the ship’s sensors and surface-to-air missiles. An LRMP/S like the P3-C Orion can fire up to four Harpoon missiles, each with a range of over 120 km.

A single hit from an anti-ship missile can disable a carrier and prevent it from launching aircraft. The only weapon the navy has to speedily intercept enemy aircraft are the Sea Harrier jump jets. Now consider this alarming scenario. Over the next five years, the task of protecting the carrier battle group—the Viraat, destroyers, frigates and fleet tankers—will fall on just nine Harriers or just half a squadron of aircraft. This is less than half the required strength of fighter aircraft.

This scenario has been worsened by the fact that the refit of the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, which India bought from Russia, has been delayed by four years and it will arrive only in 2012. Vikramaditya’s air group of 18 MiG-29K carrier-capable aircraft will start arriving in batches on time, from next year.

The MiG-29s, however, cannot operate from the Viraat’s speciallybuilt ski-jump on the flight deck and hence will be shorebased until the Vikramaditya arrives. There are three main reasons why the aircraft crash—pilot error, faulty maintenance schedule or the failure of a spare part.

The navy says it is concerned but has refused to divulge reasons behind the spate of crashes which have destroyed over 60 per cent of the Harrier fleet. Yet at least one crucial factor unifies most recent crashes: all of them occurred while the aircraft were making their landing approach suggesting a loss of control and loss of power in the final stages of landing. Clearly, an engine related issue in an aircraft that is already 25 years old. “The navy conscientiously maintains its aircraft but perhaps there are some components deep inside which are not apparent at regular inspections,” says former navy chief Admiral (retired) Arun Prakash, who flew in the first Harriers in 1983.

The spate of crashes came to the attention of Right to Information (RTI) activists Hari Kumar P. and Frederick Noronha who petitioned and successfully obtained a list of the crashes from the navy. “The crashes have been occurring with worrying frequency in Goa and seemed to have escaped any national debate,” says Noronha.

The navy says upgrades will reduce the risk of further accidents. “We have begun an upgradation of sensors, avionics and airframe of the Sea Harriers to improve the pilot’s situational awareness and lessen his load,” says naval spokesperson Commander Nirad Sinha.

The upgrade of the Harriers is now being carried out by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in Bangalore and the first Limited Upgrade Sea Harrier (LUSH) jet is set to fly in the next six months. This upgrade will deliver to the navy a formidable interceptor. Its new Elta EL/M-2032 radar can spot the enemy from over 100 km away and its Derby Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missiles can engage them at 60 km. Unfortunately, at the current crash rate of nearly two aircraft every year it seems doubtful that there will be any Harriers left to last through another decade the navy wants them to be in service.

Naval officials blame the UK, the original manufacturer of the aircraft for stalling urgently needed upgrades to the Harriers, first proposed in the mid-1990s. The V/STOL aircraft, which can take off from half the runway length required by normal fighter jets, were built by British Aerospace and first inducted from the UK in 1983 to operate off the British-built Viraat and the since decommissioned INS Vikrant.

Their upgrades to the aircraft, pending since the mid-1990s were delayed by a series of flip-flops by the British government and their refusal to part with the advanced Blue Vixen radar and US-supplied AMRAAM BVR missiles. This led to the shelving of the first upgrade. With the euphoria generated by the acquisition of Vikramaditya and its air wing of 18 MiG-29K fighter aircraft in 2004, the navy decided to abandon the Harrier upgrade. The V/STOL jets would be gradually retired with the Viraat around 2010-12.

Two years ago, the then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee announced that HAL would upgrade Sea Harriers. The limited upgrade of the 13 aircraft would give them Israeli Elta radars and Derby BVR missiles. The aircraft are to be delivered by 2009 and will serve the navy for another decade, With the navy deciding to extend the life of the Viraat by another decade and the Harrier already out of production in the world, analysts feel it has no option but to purchase second-hand aircraft from the UK.

The navy wanted to purchase the eight remaining Sea Harrier FA2 aircraft from the Royal Navy last year as crash replacements, but a waffling British government said it would supply them only after stripping them of radars, avionics and missile, a proposal that was rejected by the navy. During a visit to New Delhi last year, Britain’s First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band agreed to supply the navy the FA2s without the radars and avionics so they could be cannibalised for spare parts, but the UK subsequently backed out of this offer.Now, it turns out, there may be no more Sea Harriers left to buy.

With the Royal Navy having withdrawn its Sea Harriers from service in March last year (Royal Navy carriers operate the ground-attack variants of the jets), the Indian Navy now enjoys the uncomfortable distinction of being the world’s last operator of the aircraft which first flew in 1960. With the crashes having created an unacceptable void in its capabilities, the navy may have no option but to scout the world market for second-hand Harrier cousins like the AV-8B Harrier-II operated by the US Marine Corps and the “Matador” operated by the Spanish Navy. Here too there are problems. Unlike the British Aerospace-built Harriers which the Indian Navy operates, the AV-8Bs are built by the US McDonnel Douglas. According to naval aviators, these will bring their own set of maintenance hassles.

In the absence of any alternatives, the navy has no option but to thrust the burden of defending its growing fleet of surface warships on the ageing shoulders of its shrinking fleet of Harriers.

A Harrier hovering in to land on the Viraat

Crash Course

* Why we need the Harrier: For fleet air defence. Embarked on the aircraft carrier Viraat, it protects the fleet from enemy aircraft, warships and submarines.

* Delay in Vikramaditya refit: Five-year delay in the refit of the carrier in Russia means the navy will have only the Harriers to protect its fleet.

* Number of crashes: In the past 20 years, the Harrier fleet is down from about 30 aircraft to 13 or less than the minimum requirement of a squadron of 18 aircraft. Delays by UK Govt: Refused to upgrade Indian Sea Harriers with advanced radars and missiles since the mid-1990s. Did not give last batch of its aircraft for spare parts.

IIRC, The US Marines went through a similar crash rate when they first deployed the Harrier. Do you think the problem might be that experienced pilots just don’t understand the differences between the Harrier and any other aircraft?

Have no clue,these naval aviators are a few in number,so they are trained very hard(like in Britain).But the Harrier is an unforgiving aircraft-The Brits & the US also have had similar accident rates.

I seem to remember one of the problems of VTOL aircraft is the potential for sucking in their own exhaust, especially on landings. If that happened, one could imagine an engine losing power as it breaths its own combustion gases.

This is about equipment failure.

IIRC, the problem the US Marines had is that they went with helicopter pilots in the first go around, and their trained rotary-wing instincts were all wrong for controlling a solid massive object going fairly fast in a straight line. It just doesn't handle the same way that a helicopter does.

I've heard stories of the fixed wing pilots testing out the then brand spanking new terrain following guidance systems (for cruise missiles). They weren't used to it either, and crashes resulted from their instincts to counter whatever the guidance system was doing when it temporarily lost "sight" of the terrain when going over a drop-off (mountain, cliff, etc.).

I once watched one of these doing circuits at the Navy Base airfield at Rota, Spain. It was 1984 or 1985 - can’t remember exactly. Spent a couple of hours watching the pilot practice vertical takeoffs, circuit, and come in for a vertical landing. Kinda’ cool!

Thanks for the update. When that was happening, the MSM was the only source of information, so the news was reported by people without a clue.

I know what you mean about the pilots trying to correct for the computer. I work in a plant that is run mostly by computers. It’s common for new operators to try and run parts manually, screwing up the synchronization (making my job harder). But at least nobody gets killed when my computers get screwed up.

SONOBUOY PING!

Click on pic for past Navair pings.

Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.

Perhaps it's because they outsourced maintenance to themselves.

I just got off the phone with a polite gentleman named "Swaroop". We need to get a file transferred. Among other things, he asked me how to spell 'FTP'. Wish I was kidding about that.

Just dealing with their level of incompetence sets my teeth on edge.

The last British built Harrier was completed in 1999.You would only get retired airframes anyway.The Indian navy did look at around 8 Britist FA-2 variants,but there were issues about removing the radars as well as supply of missiles.While India wouldn’t get the AMRAAM easily,installing the new Israeli radar/missile combo would have been seen as expensive given that the IN had other spending priorities as well.

How do you spell FTP? That is an absolute classic.

The Harrier is truly a unique and interesting airframe. The 1973 Arab-Israeli showed how vulnerable an air force is when its airports are knocked out, and the Harrier is the only airframe that can deal with that threat. But it probably isn’t enough.

According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts

Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts

In this poll Hunter is up 3% and even with Paul and Thompson.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=3481ef60-8195-46a9-af04-b87b907bcfdd

I remember the first time I saw one, at Cubi Point, PI, in about 1977. I’d never seen one before, and I didn’t know what it was at the time. It came in like a normal fighter, and it slowed to the point where I thought for sure it would stall and crash, but it kept coming. My brain was doing flipflops trying to make sense of what I was seeing, until suddenly I realized I was watching a Sea Harrier!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.