800 Sqdn Sea Harrier Special

[Geoff_B]

800 Sqdn Farewell FA-2

Check this out for a scheme as 800 Sqdn FAA gets disbanded this month until it converts top GR-9's or worse case has to await F-35's.

Cheers

Geoff B  

[Captain Canada]

Awesome photos, Geoff.......thanks !

Too bad you can't 'click to enlarge', as I'd really like a better look at a few of them, like over the ramp, and the at sea shots.....

Love the FA2....what a wickedly tough looking bird ! Especially with a pair of AMRAAM strapped to the belly !

Are the Navy totally abandoning the SHAR ?

That would suck..........

[Geoff_B]

Hi Todd

Rather the MOD forcing them to abandon the best fighter in Europe. The SHAR unfortunately was based upon the original Harrier body and is unable to take the larger more powerful Pegasus required for Hot & High operations. To be honest in the late 80's we should put the FA-s gear into the Harrier II GR-5 and given us new build SHAR II rather than updating the limited Harrier, in fact they knew as far back as 73 that a larger airframe was needed but could never be bothered to fund it !!!!.

As a result by 2006 all FA-2's will cease operations and be sold on with at least one sqaudron soldiering on as part of the harrier force in GR-9's (without radar or AMRAAM !!!!)- think it might be 801 or it could be 800 thats is starting its conversion process.

See who says we learn by our mistakes !!!!

[nev]

Happy @ the scheme.  Bloody angry about scrapping those FA2s and their good-as-anything-out-there radar    

[elmayerle]

Happy @ the scheme.  Bloody angry about scrapping those FA2s and their good-as-anything-out-there radar  

Too bad the front ends can't be crossed with Harrier GR.9 bits to make some Harrier FGR.11's.

[Geoff_B]

Too bad the front ends can't be crossed with Harrier GR.9 bits to make some Harrier FGR.11's.

Thats the Trouble, they could have done that as part of the GR-9 update or possibly pick up the AV-8B+ kits to update them. However our government decided not to spend the money. I even asked when the Sea Harrier was first mentioned to being axed and the MAD replied saying it wasn't cost effective as our new Type 45's would cover the Air Defence Gap untill F-35 starts to appear. However the Type 45 are already somewhat delayed and won't see fleet service till 2009 !!!, so until then we are F***ed if we need to go into a Warzone without a friendly US Carrier (or French) to help out (even the Italian & Spanish navies have Radar equiped harriers  - although nobody has put the funds to certify AMRAAM on them yet - Or ASRAAM !!!!)

So yet again penny pinching robs us of decent kit whilst billions is wasted on badly managed projects.

Cheers

Geoff B

[nev]

The worst part of it is that the senior RN officers who are party to this decision would have been junior RN officers in the Falklands when a lot of men died becos we didn't have adequate AWACS/fighter cover.

[Captain Canada]

Yeah, that's true nev....and a real pisser that these guys choose carreer advancement over their own servicemans safety !

Bizarre world we live in........

[F-32]

I can imagine the meeting now, all of them sitting around smoking cigars and drinking brandy, discussing how they must sacrifice a few good men for the greater good and future success of the Royal Navy............long live the Queen (Elton John I mean).

The decision sucks and blows at the same time