March 2016 AH 27learned the hard way that it
required a particularly skilled
pilot to safely fly a Harrier.
They had practiced air com-
bat maneuvering against the
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who wanted a piece of them.
During one set of practice
sorties, three RN Sea Harrier
pilots with Falklands experi-
ence scored 27 wins versus 10
losses flying against nimble
Air Force F-5Es. A fighter
wing of F-15s at Bitburg,
West Germany, traveled to
England to even the score but
ended up losing seven to one.
And when the RAF tried its
own F-4 Phantoms against
the new Sea Harriers—and
no love is lost between the two
services—they were particu-
larly embarrassed to lose 25
to one.
The Argentines, however,
had no competent opponents
against whom they could
practice, and their last seri-
ous ACM instruction came
during the seven years that
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spent in Argentina as a Fuerza
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World War II. They were
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range and had no fuel to spare
for maneuvering. Nor did the
Argentines have electronics
that approached what the
Harriers carried.
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from their own carriers with
the battle coming to them,
did splendidly at air-to-air,
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that the Harriers lost the air
war, since enough Argentine
aircraft and missiles got past
them to sink seven British
ships and to hit half a dozen
more with bombs that failed
to explode. Nor were the
Harriers able to interdict thecontrol, and it was a major engineering achievement. The noz-
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where a fuel-mixture control might be in a piston engine air-
plane. Moving it full aft shifts the four nozzles to the braking
position, pointing 8 degrees ahead of straight down. Forward of
that is a hover position, nozzles full down. Advancing the lever
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I[PWZ\OZW]VLZ]VQV\WITQN\Wٺ4M^MTÆQOP\Q[IKPQM^MLJaN]TT
forward movement of the lever. The nozzles react rapidly and
are capable of moving 90 degrees in less than a second.
An even more remarkable engineering achievement in aid of
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where its aerodynamic surfaces—ailerons, rudder and eleva-
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yaw control. They are small nozzles exhausting engine bleed
air. One points down at each wingtip, another downward jet is
under the nose and three are on the tail stinger, one down and
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the thrust nozzles are vectored downward at 55 degrees or more,
IVL\PMX]ٺMZ[IZMIJ[WT]\MTa\ZIV[XIZMV\\W\PMXQTW\1NPMWZ[PM
moves the stick or rudder pedals, the Harrier responds exactly
as it would to its conventional aerodynamic controls, and a feed-
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I
t only took 10 weeks
during the spring of 1982
for the British to amortize
their entire investment in
the Harrier. The air war
against Argentina over the
Falkland Islands was fought
almost entirely by 42 Royal
Air Force Harriers and Royal
Navy Sea Harriers, which
traveled the 7,800 miles to the
.ITSTIVL[IJWIZL\PM:6¼[
two remaining aircraft car-
riers, as well as several cargo
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England with doubts linger-
ing. A quick U.S. Navy study
had declared the reoccupa-
tion of the Falklands “a mili-
tary impossibility,” and many
IZUKPIQZ M`XMZ\[ KW]TLV¼\
imagine how the little Harriers
could possibly compete with
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rages and Israeli-built Dag-
gers. The odds were rumored
to be 200, even 400 Argentine
aircraft of all types against the
handful of Harriers.
In the end, the Argentine
air force and navy put up
approximately 120 Mirages,
Daggers, Super Etenards, A-4
Skyhawks and MB-332s—
still 3-to-1 odds—and the
RN Sea Harriers downed 23
of them (24 if you count the
Mirage that tried to land at
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of combat damage but was
shot down by Argentine gun-
ners when it pickled its bombs
in preparation for landing).
Sea Harrier air-to-air losses
were zero, though six were
shot down by groundfire or
lost to accidents. The RAF
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to-ground sorties and lost a
further four.
Did this qualify the Harrier
as a superplane? Not really,
for the air battle was fought
by cream-of-the-crop British
pilots, since the Brits hadBAPTISM OF FIRE Harrier GR.3s and Sea Harrier FR.1s line
the carrier Hermes’ deck off the Falklands in May 1982.