maxburner
Take a look around you - this is PPRuNe country. Accuracy is important in flight test so I suggest you sharpen up.
For everybody else, there is so much that could be said regarding some of the incorrect SHAR info that floats around (especially on WEB’s first link) that one could make a career out of correcting it all. But the hell with that, life is too short.
For me, the most significant thing is that the SHAR's most vociferous critics never mention its most diabolical feature. I suspect this says a bit about how much they actually know about the wriggly machine but let us not get into that. The nozzle lever (the said diabolical feature) means there are two things for the left hand to grab so it is only a matter of time before you move the wrong one. However, 40 plus years ago there was just no other way to do the desirable vectored thrust thing. Since then generations of pilots have been trained up to the task and compensated for the deficiencies in the basic design concept - most of the time.
In 1971 I went to the first RAE meeting where boffins outlined a way ahead to simplify the pilot’s task. I got very excited and thought 18 months should sort that. In fact it took until 1999 before I flew software in the VAAC where I felt you needed zero training beyond a PPL to fly any manoeuvre involving jet lift. Thank goodness the JSF pilots will be properly served. Quite seriously, until you have flown a fast jet where all you have to do is pull back on the pole to go up AT ANY AIRSPEED then you have not experienced low work load.
Of course BEagle is right to question whether a forty year old concept has much sensible service life remaining. Especially when the hottest bit of the machine is positioned at the CG. It must be nasty in any fast jet to have your IR defences penetrated and as a result loose a chunk off your back end, but surely this is as nothing compared to taking a direct hit right behind your own pink back.
As the original poster said the SHAR has a BVR system that is the one to beat even today, but thanks to years of under investment we must agree it is mounted in a knackered airframe that is shoved around by a worn out donk. Unlike the kit in the GR9.