Originally Posted by
TURIN
A question from a non military type. Why was the rolling landing not used with the Sea Harrier?
It wasn't needed, SHar landing weight allowed for a vertical landing, the F-35B on the other hand is much heavier and the SRVL allows the bring back of unused weapons without having to jettison them to achieve the weight required for a vertical landing, it also mitigates some of the heat/blast on the deck from the engine. It should be noted though that the F-35B can vertical land aboard ship if need be, it just has to do it at much reduced weight which would require the jettisoning of (the eye watering expensive) weapons first...
-RP