Bae Systems Kestrel Ii

[Archibald]

Bae Systems Super Harrier

The 11th July 2008 was nearly a tragic day for the USA. French terrorists had planned a camembert bombing in NY. Thanks to Yann Boec, the conspiracy failed...

But this caused a major review in defence programs. The Pentagon understood that the future of warfare now layed in counter-terrorism, no conventional wars fight with carriers, tanks and... combat aircrafts.
So the Raptor, Superbug and...F-35 were again reviewed. The aim was to cut costs in conventional weapons in favor of intelligence.

The Super Bug was vital for the USN, beeing defensor of the fleet and main fighter bomber. Without the Raptor, the USAF was at the level of a 3rd world country, with aeging F-16s and F-15s.
So the two were saved... this meant that costs savings would apply to the JSF.

The program was subject to more and more criticism, but it could not be cancelled. The aim was to drastically reduce its cost... the 3 variants were scrutinised, and some controversial decisions were taken.

First, the USAF aircraft become a land based USN variant. Only differences now layed in the undercarriage (of course, naval equipments such as the arrestor hook were deleted). Wings, cockpit, engine were similar.

This allowed big costs saving, but Congress judged that insufficient.

Target was now the less performing, more expensive variant, the V/STOL F-35C. Exports orders for this plane were insignifiant... but the USMC complained loudly.

After hot debate, it was decided that the service would receive Super Hornets to replace its F-18D, the Harrier would not be replaced. More helicopters would be bought for CAS... LPH returned to the amphibious/ helicopter carrier role, loosing their fighter bomber component.

The GAO also criticised the development of two engines, the F-135 and F-136. In the end, it was decided to scrap the F-136.

These decisions came as a shock in GB, which had cancelled CVF in late 2007 because of its high cost. Decision has been taken to upgrade Ark Royal and Illustrious, extending their useful lives up to 2030.
This meant that the V/STOL JSF was badly needed for the service to replace Sea Harriers and RAF GR.9 operating from the ships. But the V/STOL JSF was not be resurected.
After some months of hot debate, GB and the RN faced a major crisis. The risk was to stay with helicopter carriers at long term.
Lockheed offered to Bae systems to continue the V/STOL variant of F-35 alone, but it was too expensive without the US Gvt and USMC backing.

In 2009,the last Hawk rolled out of the production line. This was the end of British national military aircrafts... situation seemed to be deseperate. The Harrier replacement problem became more and more accute...

And Bae system made a proposal. They had analysed the main default of the Harrier

- subsonic speed
- single seater, overloading the pilot in A2G missions
- poor engine accessibility (only by removing the wing!)

Their proposal was based on a heavily modified Harrier T.10. The aim was to improve vastly the good old Harrier using some F-35 and F-136 stuff.

To make a Harrier supersonic, old files from the closed Kingston plant were opened (P.1150, 1154, 1179...)
They showed the way to follow : PCB, pointed nose, and squarred intakes would allow a Harrier derivative to go supersonic in level flight. Bae feeled that a top speed of mach 1.5 would be sufficient.

Supersonic flight implied a new wing and tail : aerodynamic studies made for the
F-22, F-23 and F-35 were used.

The fuselage was streched from 2 meters (between the nozzles) to allow more fuel to be carried. A vast door was designed on the back, to remove the engine without removing the wing.
Engine was still the Pegasus, but vastly improved with F-136 technology. It was boosted to 14500 kgp, sufficient to push a Harrier derivative to mach 1.5.

The plane was fitted with an upgraded variant of the excellent Blue Vixen radar mounted on the Sea Harrier. It was made compatible with the Meteor long range AAM.

The plane was offered as a V/STOL strike fighter to replace the GR.11 of the RAF, and long range supersonic interceptor for RN.

British governement proved enthusiastic, and 200 aircrafts were bought. Later, Italy Spain and Thailand also bought the aircraft to replace their AV-8.
After Kim Young Ill detonate an A-bomb on the DMZ in 2012, Japan, South Korea and Australia also bought a batch of aircrafts for their LPH.

[cthulhu77]

what a great concept!  

[B777LR]

Zacs not gonna like the backstory  :ar:

Great model! I love the air intake  

[John Howling Mouse]

Ditto on the concept.  
So, how does she handle 'round the house, Archibald?

[Rafael]

VTOL Extraordinaire, Archi. Me likes the end result!!!!    

Felicitaciones, amiguito!!

Rafa

[Brian da Basher]

What a cool build, Archie! It looks like the offspring of a wild night between an F-22 and a Harrier! I really like your R.A.F. camo scheme too.

Great work!

Brian da Basher

[Maverick]

Archie,

My Frech ancestors have just contacted me from the great beyond to give me a message.....  (apologies for the p!ss poor accent, but I watched waaaay too much 'Allo 'Allo... listen very carefully, i will say thees only once)

"'Mon dieu!  Is zs what a good Frenchman does zese days wis his spare time?"

"Oui," i reply, still shaking my head.

"I knew King Louis had the wrong idea!  But I'm glad we fled to Angleterre, anyway."

"It's a worldwide thing," I reply, "not just for the French"

"You mean zis isn't ze result of eating stale cheese & drinking too much wine?"

"Non".

"Sacre bleu, what is this world coming too?"

Seriously tho, super nice backstory (heheheh) and a kit that looks like the F-22 met an old Harrier, got drunk and woke up next morning next to it....

Super build Arch,

Mav

[BlackOps]

Archibald, this one is great! I love the twin tail

[Archibald]

Mercimercimercimercimercimerci for the cheer comments!!

Maverick            

First, thanks JHM for the styren - the perfect material!!! -

Wings and V-tail are scaled-down, styrene replicas of YF-23   wings and tail... I drawn the wings on styren with a pen, then cut and cut again until it looks good on the Harrier T-10.
The air intakes come from a Phantom - the one which was changed into a P.141
4 months ago, "rien ne se perd" (nothing is lost) as we say on this side of the Channel.

I lengthened the fuselage with cardboard (Youm! ) between the engines ducts.

Something fun is that my subconscious aparently wanted to build ... a RN P.1154 (look at the fuselage : two seat Harrier + phantom intakes + pointed nose   ).

So I ended with a kind of "modernised P.1154" with stealth wings and tail...

what do you think about  anaming it "Hawker P.1254"