Originally Posted by RileyDove
Tombstone - The RAF has kept the Harrier because it has nothing to replace it and there isn't anything readily available . The Jaguar hasn't ever offered the load carrying capability of the Harrier in 'hot and high' environments.
It's also worth pointing out that the Jaguar is a late 1960's design which reached the end of it's development potential. The Harrier II is at least a late 1970's design and has had more scope for upgrades. As for the validity of the
I accept the point about the Jags payload however, The Jag's design potential was still being exploited up until last year, ASRAAM,ETAPs and EFRCs as examples.
Tim,
I did indeed answer you question. The Harrier utilises STOVL not VTOL and was always designed with STOVL in mind. These are two very different concepts when you take payload into account & it is therefore rather unfair to label the GR7 as a obsolete VTOL a/c when infact it is not in service as a VTOL a/c.
I remember you being just as passionate/argumentative on the Warplane forum when chatting to fellow spotters!!
It always did make me giggle whilst browsing the threads looking for some photos which, I should add, were bloody impressive.
