It is me, or are some people saying that all the skills and experience needed for Harrier have been lost in a few months, but losing skills and experience (see my comments
here or
here, or perhaps those of
Bismark or
Not_a_boffin) amongst carrier personnel over the next decade will present no problem?
We need to carry on embarking jets as often as we can. The Future Reserves 2020
paper mentions the RNR Air Branch being expanded to support FAA activities. Sadly it makes no mention of the
RNR/Harrier proposal. It does talk about using Reserves for the regeneration of capabilities and the whole force concept.
FODPlod
Noooooo! The Sea Harriers at the RNSFDO Dummy Deck now provide our only means of training chockheads. After March 2006 (when the Sea Jet ceased flying) there was speculation from some about whether they could be regenerated is a crisis - this of course depended on the UK operating other Harriers. Oddly, when the Indian Navy wanted to buy some stored Sea Harriers in early 2009, MOD said no.
During the discussion over the Sea Harrier some argued that as the future was going to involve ground attack it was the GR7/9 that we needed, not the Sea Harrier. Some of the same people are now saying we saying we should get rid of Harrier GR9 as it is not a real fighter.
Engines/SammySu
Thank you for helping to address some of the myths regarding this subject, on both the physical state of the aircraft and on the level of CVS experience amongst Harrier pilots. I wonder if these myths played a part in decision making?
Out of interest I hear the jets are being ground run at the beginning of August to keep them serviceable for sale.
If they are as knackered as some suggest, who would want to buy them? Perhaps they really are going to the US as a spares source, in which case I might raise my suggestion again.
It occurs to me that if we could supply a number (most of them) of our now stored Harrier GR9s to the US, and continue to offer the USMC a chance to carry out embarkations of a dozen or so Harriers, we may be able to purchase or lease a number of AV8B (AV8B+ if we're lucky) aircraft in a quid pro quo type arrangement. Hopefully any such deal would include some sort of MOU in order to prevent the UK to incur major support costs, but would offer the following advantages:
1. The UK would still be able to respond to crises in which carrier aviation is useful.
2. The RN would maintain the skills needed to run a carrier with jets on deck, and would maintain a cadre of both Pilots and Engineers to work with these aircraft, avoiding the need to start from scratch later on this decade.
3. If we could get AV8B+s then it would give the Navy a capability that it lost when the Sea Harrier was retired in 2006. We would therefore be in a far better position to provide air defence for a maritime task group, or to participate in policing a no fly zone.
4. We would no longer have to pay for storing retired aircraft, and the Government would be justified in portraying this as a step forward.
5. Our potential adversaries would have something to think about - prevention (deterrence) being better than cure.
6. The defence relationship with the US would be strengthened, as would the defence relationship with France as Illustrious would be able to relieve Charles De Gaulle in x months time.
The use of
Ocean as a platform for Apaches operating in a strike role seems to show that a maritime strike capability is needed for what the Government wants the Armed Forces to be capable of doing. Now there is talk of
Illustrious relieving Ocean - for which her post refit work up will need to be rushed, with
Apaches embarking and learning to operate from her deck. Note the use of the word STRIKE.
As far as I am aware, the Apache has mostly used the Hellfire missile against regime targets. However, the limited range and higher level vulnerability of a helicopter (compared to a fast jet) has meant it has not gone too far inshore. Harrier would bring extra speed and range to the mission, and greater firepower - Maverick and Paveway IV. With Sidewinders it could also play a part in looking out for rogue aircraft.
I was in Portsmouth the other week and saw
Illustrious entering harbour with at least one Apache on deck and I thought "Libya". I have seen/heard other things which suggest MOD is expecting a long campaign in Libya.